“Yes. You are insecure.”

Sunny grabbed a handful of wet grass and threw it at Anyanwu. She blinked when the clump hit the soft glow and fell to the ground. She threw more. Then Anyanwu grabbed an even bigger clump and flung it at Sunny, hitting her right in the face. Some of it got in her mouth, and she spit it out.

“Do you think I make you a Leopard Person?” Anyanwu asked.

“Yes!”

Anyanwu laughed. “I’m your spirit memory, I’m you outside of time, I’m your spirit face, I am you. You are me. Our Leopardom is within all that makes us.”

“Then why couldn’t I go to Leopard Knocks that day?”

“Because, as I said, you’re insecure.”

Sunny pressed her lips together and frowned.

“Our bond’s been broken,” Anyanwu continued. “That trauma . . . few will ever know it. We’ve gone through it twice; it took two traumas to tear it completely. When that djinn pulled us in and when Ekwensu took advantage and finished the job.”

Sunny nodded as they both felt a ghost of the sharp pains that had reverberated through their entire being. Twice.

“The second time, did you feel when we drifted?” Anyanwu asked.

“Yes.”

“That was when we should have died. We’d have lost this connected duality and returned to the wilderness as one again. But we lived, because we are Sunny and Anyanwu.” Sunny felt Anyanwu’s confident pleasure at this fact. “Sunny, you can work whatever juju you please, whether I am there or not. That’s why I say you’re insecure. You couldn’t get into Leopard Knocks because you didn’t believe you were a Leopard Person without me.”

“But . . .”

“Work a little harder and be more confident. Our bond is broken; some compensation is required. It’s like loving and cherishing someone without needing the bonds of marriage to enforce it,” Anyanwu said. “By sinister means, you and I are free.”

Sunny sat with Anyanwu’s words, staring into the pouring rain. The lightning and thunder were fading. But even if they didn’t, she wasn’t afraid of being struck anymore. Sunny took a deep breath and then asked, “What was the meeting?”

She could feel Anyanwu smile. “None of your business.”

Sunny stared at Anyanwu for a moment and then burst out laughing. She got up and grabbed her soccer ball. It flew out of her hands as Anyanwu took off with it across the field. Sunny had to run fast to catch up with her. And the two played like that until the rain stopped.

On the way back, she came upon Sasha walking up the road, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. By this time, the air had taken on so much humidity that breathing it was almost like drinking water.

“What are you doing in the rain?” Sunny asked, slapping and grasping hands with him.

“Looking for you.”

“I was playing soccer,” she said, tossing her wet ball up and catching it.