I faced her. I took a gamble bringing Hailey to Golden Isle. I’d gone a step further than Naira had. At least when Luke came, it was under the pretense of a tourist. I had brought Hailey around the Kin. She’d been inside Kin’s Landing.
“Listen,” I began when I turned back into the cabin. Hailey and I needed to set some things straight. “You can’t be here starting stuff up with my friends or anyone on this island.”
Hailey gawked at me. “Last I checked, he came to my bungalow and started with me.”
“You’re a… guest,” I almost saidoutsider, but I stopped myself in time.
Hailey paced the floor, activated with anger at Sekou and now at me for standing up for him.
She flushed red and her eyes smoldered as she pinned me with a stare.
“He’s right about one part, though,” I said. “You can’t attend the festival. It’s for family only.” I willed her to understand and not put up a fight. There was no room for argument, and if Hailey and I were going to explore anything more between us, she’d have to understand that there were some things I wouldn’t share with her. The Isle’s private traditions were one of them.
Hailey’s pacing slowed, then stopped as she turned to me incredulously. “I really can’t go?”
I shook my head. “You can’t. It’s private.”
Her eyes narrowed and her voice came out clipped as if she were talking to a child. “Then why the hell did you bring me here?”
I snorted. “To keep you safe? Because we were chased by monsters? To attend the Homegoing? Pick a reason.”
“A festival is festive. It’s for the public to attend and enjoy. What’s so special about what you all are doing?”
I bristled. I got that she was pissed. I got she didn’t understand, but she wasn’t going to speak about me or our traditions any kind of way either, no matter how mad she was.
“You don’t need to understand our traditions, but you need to respect them, especially if you want to be my friend.”
She hesitated, the light coming on that maybe she’d gone a step too far. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I’m not here for anything other than to pay my respects to Naira and for my brother.”
I read truth in her eyes. Or what I thought was truth. It was hard to stay clear when she was around.
“So, you’ll hang tight?” I stepped in the direction of the door, thinking all was clear. “I’ll see you in the morning?”
I had no more time to waste because things were already going to get started. Already in the background the steady drumming of the djembe had begun.
“Ada, can you wait a minute?” Hailey said. “Can we talk about the whole Endowment thing? It’s not at all like what your friend was saying.”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said, opening the front door. I really had to go. I was cutting it close as it was.
“Ada—”
But I couldn’t delay any longer. I cut her off, shutting the door. I rushed back to the Landing, not wanting to be late. The drumbeats quickened, calling us to the Gathering Tree.
I would drink the Light tonight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
By the time I made it back within our gates, the sky was black with twinkling dots in it. The trees cast shadows all around and would have been terrifying if I hadn’t lived here all my life. The rhythmic drumbeats beckoned me and the rest of the Kinfolk to “ready ourselves and come” to where we were all supposed to assemble at the Gathering Tree.
Thursdays had always been my favorite day of the week. But the festival on a Thursday night was an added bonus because it was like a perfect alignment. And Naira wasn’t here to experience it. She wasn’t going to experience anything anymore.
Get it together, Addae.
Tonight wasn’t the night to be wallowing in sadness. I had to focus.
Preparing for the ceremony took a lot of work. You had to get your head in the right state of mind. There were the clothes. There were the traditional dances and incantations to call upon the gods and goddesses, the spirits that protected us and watched the island, protected the island. There would be singing songs ofglory and rejoicing of three good months and paying homage to those spirits that helped us achieve it. And there would be prayers for three more months of good fortune and blessings that Nana Ama would call to the gods to bestow on because she always carried the responsibility for others, whether they were Kin or not.
The drumbeats filtered through my open window. I studied my image in the mirror behind my door, making sure my traditional dress was on properly. The red bandeau top around my chest, the layers of multicolored beads, accentuated with bright blue ones that looked similar to the blue gems embedded in Nana Ama’s thick golden cuffs.
