“Grandma,” I whispered, devastated that I had disappointed her once again. I knew how high the stakes were. I am Nana Ama’s only descendant. The protection of this island and the Kinfolk on it depended on me.
For the past six years I had tried to Light, and each failure was worse than the last. I was her only direct descendant left, the only one who could carry on her legacy from our ancestors.
But I couldn’t do it. Or, it wouldn’t come. Maybe there was something wrong with my body or my mind, or maybe I was justborn weak. Or maybe, I just wasn’t worthy of it. No matter the reason, not being able to fulfill my birthright filled me with immense shame.
I wished she would rage and rant rather than look at me the way she was through watery eyes, like I had crushed all of her hopes and dreams. In this moment, my grandmother, who always appeared ageless, looked every bit of her years as she realized that maybe her only grandchild would be just that and nothing more.
CHAPTER NINE
The next day, I got a text from Sekou.Head over to Naira’s.I frowned, wondering why he was telling me to go there when she wasn’t back yet. Last night, after I’d returned home, the only person I wanted to talk to was Naira. Had she been here, I’d have gone to her house instead of to my empty one. I’d have climbed up the tree by her bedroom window—centuries younger than our Gathering Tree at the center of Kin’s Landing town square—and let myself into her room, like I’d done all our years growing up and vice versa. But she wasn’t here, and instead, I sent a text.
naira u gud?
I had waited for the three pulsing dots. None came. Minutes had passed, each one making me more anxious than the one before.
look sry 4 being an ass. cud u answr? pls? need to knw ur good
shits happened here
I fell asleep waiting for the dots. I woke up the next morning, forcing myself to go to work at the golf cart rental at Freeman’s Port. The Mast General Store was still closed, but I shrugged it off. Maybe they were running late because it was still early. Maybe Naira had been partying late last night and was sleeping it off. Or she was annoyed that up until now I hadn’t answered her back? Whatever the reason, she wasn’t answering. Then Sekou texted.
“Cover for me?”
My question came out more a statement as I handed my coworker Rita my clipboard and redirected the customers coming at me with their thousand and one questions to her. Rita didn’t have a chance to say no because I was already hopping in my cart and zooming off to Naira’s house to see what was up.
The surprise was on me because not only did I see Sekou’s cart parked on the curb, but Nana’s cart was parked in the driveway of the Russells’ big beachfront home. She rarely if ever took it out since someone was always on hand to drive her where she needed. The sight of her cart was the first signal that something wasn’t right.
I recognized Sheriff Lyle’s official truck parked among the carts. Usually he kept it at the municipal building closer to the public port. Usually he rode around in carts as we normally did. The truck meant he had to get somewhere quickly. I wondered if this had anything to do with Elder Gilbert.
A bunch of ppl r at ur house. What’s up?
I waited for the gray dots letting me know Naira was replying. Nothing. I sent another message, this time to Sekou.
Se, what’s the deal?
There were dots pulsating. Then they stopped. They started again and then Sekou’s reply came.
Come in
Now that I was here, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what was on the other side of that door. The familiar feeling when I woke up from the earthquake, that a shoe was hovering ready to drop, was back and I wasn’t ready for it to slam into me.
The vibe was like the humidity: heavy, sticky, and suffocating. It smacked me in the face and clung to me like glue. The vibe here was all wrong.
Eventually I got out. If I hadn’t, Sekou would have come to get me. I focused on what was on the other side of the front door. When I went inside, the house was full of people, but it was as quiet as a tomb. There wasn’t the usual Russell family commotion—a blaring TV or Alexa playing Mr. and Mrs. Russell’s favorite jams, the four younger kids screaming and running around with Naira’s parents yelling at them to settle down.
Through the hall and in the great room, I spotted a few elders standing around. Some wiping their eyes. Some mumbling what sounded like prayers under their breaths. Others patting backs and looking like the world had ended. One of them was humming, a long solemn melody of the Lord working in mysterious ways. No one said much to me, as if they were trying to avoid me. I counted one brother and all three of Naira’s sisters. All present and accounted for. Whatever this was, it wasn’t about any ofthem. I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t go away.
Sekou was there. He’d squeezed himself in a corner near the doorway I’d entered. His eyes were vacant, lost. Seeing him there made me slow my step. My stomach triple-flipped. The way Sekou looked, hell, the way they all looked—turning in unison to watch me walk in, conversation suddenly halting like some kind of screwed-up movie—had me wanting to turn around and go back the way I’d come. My knees jellied and I could barely keep myself upright.
There was Nana, bending over Naira’s mother, rubbing gentle circles on the woman’s back with the soft palm of her hand. I couldn’t see Auntie Janet’s face—her head was buried in a blue striped dish towel in her hands. Her aching moans chipped away at the affirmations I’d told myself before coming in that whatever was going on wasn’t too bad.
Uncle Kofi, Naira’s spitting image with eyes like hers—gentle and kind and inquisitive—leaned heavily against one of the eggshell-colored walls, his feet crossed at the ankles. He had both his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. His eyes weren’t the usual warm with a hint of comedy that had comforted me all my life. Now, they were glazed, hollowed out and unseeing as he stared off to a space over everyone’s heads. He didn’t seem to register anyone, even as Elders Andrew and Edu sandwiched him in, taking turns murmuring in low rumbling tones, speaking words I couldn’t decipher and didn’t know if I wanted to.
In the middle of the room was Sheriff Lyle, looking grimmerthan I’d ever seen him. I’d take his usual aloofness to the way his face was closed in, looking as if the world had ended.
Beside him was a cop I didn’t recognize in a military-style buzz cut, with small ice-blue eyes that held not an inch of warmth, andDNRetched on the lapel of his uniform. The DNR caught my attention. Like,do not resuscitate? From the way his eyes shifted from face to face and then to the wide, pretty room we all stood in, I could tell the guy wasn’t used to being in a room where he was the minority, a shock of white in a sea of black and brown. But I didn’t have time to dig into the irony of his situation because his being here with Lyle was suspicious. The way he and Lyle gripped their hats in their hands looking like a couple of grim reapers had wild thoughts beating at my mind’s door, and I only caught the last part of what he was saying.
“… with me from the Department of Natural Resources and they are doing everything in their power to locate her.”
