“Just after Christmas. We can spend New Year’s there, maybe.”

“So you and Chichi? And those other two, too?”

“Yes, me, Chichi, Orlu, and S-Sasha.” Her face grew hot.

“Who is this Sasha? The American, right?” Chukwu asked.

Sunny bit her lip. “Yeah, he’s . . .”

“Oh, I know about him,” Chukwu said. He said no more and Sunny was relieved.

“You think Ugonna will want to come?” Sunny quickly asked.

“And not be here with his sweetheart to ring in the New Year? Doubtful.”

Sunny scrunched her nose. “You mean Dolapo?” She’d met the girl once and was deeply annoyed by the way she looked Sunny up and down and then giggled. Since, Sunny hadn’t spoken a word to her when Ugonna brought her around.

“The one and only.”

“I’ll ask anyway,” Sunny said.

But Chukwu was right. Ugonna wasn’t interested in Lagos, unless he could bring Dolapo. Plus, there wasn’t enough room in the Jeep.

With Chukwu doing the asking, convincing their parents was even easier. “I guess you could use the break,” her father said. He didn’t say a thing about Sunny and her friends tagging along. He didn’t even look at her. With the proud way he clapped Chukwu on the back, Sunny knew they’d be assured plenty of gas money and her father would entrust Chukwu with a nice amount of spending money, too. Good. She was going to Lagos to meet a giant spider.

21

BOOK OF SHADOWS

Today, it’s raining in the forest. But by now you know that the water will not drench you. Not that badly. The Idiok have taken shelter, however. They don’t like the mud, and the sound of the rain hitting the tree leaves is good for sleep. Those with young babies will be blessed with much-needed rest.

We are walking in my favorite part of the forest. I was attracted to this place, and that was how the Idiok knew to teach me Nsibidi. Look around you. Do you see that tree to your left with the smooth, narrow trunk and the tiny oval-shaped leaves? Yes, look all the way up and see that it stretches so high that it disappears into the rainclouds. It goes much higher than any normal tree. Imagine the things that crawl up and down that tree, into and out of the forest.

Do you see the vines that wind around it? Yes, you are seeing correctly. They have light green delicate leaves that look delicious enough to eat. I have eaten them; they taste fresh like lettuce. And see their white-pink flowers? See how they open and close, not slowly, not quickly? Like they are one great winding beast that is breathing? And see the ghost hopper perched on the tree trunk beside it? This part of my forest was full—a place that was both wilderness and physical world.

Lambs of the area avoided this place, deeming it long ago a forbidden forest. The patch of forest was small, no more than twenty square meters and easy to avoid, so for centuries, maybe even millennia, it had simply been left alone. For me, being a Leopard Person, it was seeing two layers of reality at once—the magical and the physical. I loved this place as the Idiok did.