I avoided Nana’s eyes when they landed on me. “And then hopefully we can get to know each other a little better before Naira’s Homegoing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“This is true, what you’ve just told me?” Nana Ama asked, looking from me to Hailey and back to me again. She sat at the small table in Hailey’s guest house, which was a tiny one-room cabin the size of a hotel room with a teeny bathroom included. It wasn’t meant to be occupied for long stretches of time and was used mostly for emergencies or the rare tourist or two who didn’t mind small spaces. Hailey and I were sat at the foot of her bed. Nana Ama sat in the only chair in the room, considering us with an unreadable expression.
“Describe the beings that attacked you again.”
We did, and with each word, Nana looked more and more troubled.
“And the woman,” she said carefully. “You didn’t recognize her?”
“I didn’t except from the blurry screenshot Naira sent.” I wanted to add how she knew my mother’s name, but since Hailey was there, I kept that to myself.
Nana turned to Hailey. “Were you harmed? Scratched? Bitten?”
“I’m okay. Just terrified.” Hailey asked, “What were those things?”
Nana stood up abruptly. “I’ll call Sheriff Lyle.” She paused, looking unsure of her next move for the first time.
I got up too, worried that I’d made a mistake. Maybe we should have waited until after Naira’s Homegoing before laying this on her.
“I need to get my thoughts together,” she said. She walked toward the door, her steps heavy, her mood heavier. Hailey and I looked at each other.
None of this was good.
Nana opened the door, and Elder James and Sekou were right outside, and they looked like they were in the midst of their own heated conversation. Elder James cleared his throat. He peered in the cabin, finding Hailey, regarding her with the same kind of suspicious expression Sekou had on.
It was as if Nana remembered we were still there. That’s how deep in thought she was, and I was dying to know what she was thinking. But I couldn’t. She turned back to us.
“You’re safe on Golden Isle,” she said. She spoke to us, but her mind was somewhere else. “Let’s get through Naira’s Homegoing.”
“But those things,” Hailey said, sounding tense. “What if they come here?”
Nana stepped over the threshold. “Nothing gets on or off the Isle unless the Isle wills it. And if I’m here, they cannot come.”
Hailey’s face crumpled and she made a move to speak, but I grabbed her hand, shaking my head. She snapped her mouth shut. Now was not the time for questions.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Golden Isle held Naira’s Homegoing and released her light at the edge of the beach at dusk.
It was beautiful in spite of the pain of the occasion, all of us in variations of white for purity, from traditional wear to modern. I was dressed in the same outfit as Nana Ama, in a white gauzy cloth wrapped around my chest like a bandeau and a long white cloth around my waist, cowrie beads adorning my head and wrists.
It wasn’t just the Kin who attended, but the locals as well, anyone who knew Naira well and wanted to share in her special moment. I watched her family, who stood stoically and welcomed all the well-wishers with a smile, though the smiles weren’t as bright as they used to be. I listened to the soft beats as Sekou hit the djembes with the other drummers. And then they quieted down so Nana Ama could give her blessings and release Naira into the light, bending at the water’s edge to place a circlet of white flowers with deep green leaves and a tiny tea light flickering in thesoft breeze, into the water to float to sea. Naira’s family did the same, each with their own circlets.
As I watched them slip toward the horizon, something receded inside me as well. I had never lost hope that Naira was still alive, never lost the sense that she was still out there, somewhere. But now I could feel her presence disappearing, her spirit drifting toward the horizon along with the crowns.
I had thought I wouldn’t go through with it, but now I bent down and set a large bloomed magnolia flower in the water, its wide cup cradling the tiny fire in the middle that would accompany Naira on her journey into the Asamando and her next life, where I wished to the gods she’d have an even better life and that we’d meet again.
As the magnolia joined with the flowers released by others and melted into the horizon, I felt the final wisp of Naira’s spirit leave me.
She was truly gone, and I was alone. My chest heaved, and I willed myself not to double over in pain. Instead, I stood there stoically, allowing the pain to rage inside me. This was how a leader said goodbye.
As dusk settled, the lights danced on the sea like little fireflies. Homegoings were supposed to be happy, a send-off to our loved ones now on their journey of peace to the spirit realm and to watch over those of us still here. But how could Naira be at peace after what might have happened to her? Or even Luke? Hailey was beside me and slipped her hand in mine after she’d sent off two lighted flowers, one for Naira and one for Luke. Whether she understood the significance of Light and our ways, her reverenceto my traditions shook something loose in me. Something warm and curious.
“I never could have imagined something so beautiful,” she said. She squeezed my hand. “Thank you, Ada. What you all have here… is a gift.”
I broke away from the sea, staring into her tear-filled eyes, and wished I could shed some myself, but the anger wouldn’t let me. Hailey tried to say more but couldn’t, and that was okay. Sometimes it was better to say nothing at all. She tipped her head to mine, and I let myself melt into the moment, serene on the outside. At war on the inside. I watched the floating lighted flowers move farther away, while the music and singing went on around us.
