“Here’s to saving the world,” Sasha said. They all clinked their glasses again and sipped.

And surviving tomorrow, Sunny thought. She sipped again.

Sasha put on some rap music that Sunny wasn’t familiar with. It was in the Ghanaian language of Twi. Both Sasha and Chichi started getting down, and even Orlu smiled and laughed, doing a few moves himself.

“Ah-ah, look at Orlu,” Chichi shouted. “That’s nice!” She imitated his steps and soon all three of them were doing Orlu’s dance. Sunny felt a little dizzy from her wine, so she sat down, enjoying the moment with her closest friends. With her peripheral vision she saw a hint of a yellow figure sitting close beside her. “Happy New Year, Anyanwu,” she whispered. The yellow intensified for a moment and then was gone. But always there, Sunny thought, taking another gulp of wine.

Later, after a brief phone call to her relieved parents and a ten-minute-long text message exchange with Ugonna, she stepped out onto her balcony. “Wow,” she whispered, grasping the doorway. The railing was peopled with over thirty green and orange lizards. They looked at her, but not one ran away. She sat on the balcony floor and flipped through the Book of Shadows for a few minutes, but she was too tired to read.

When she went to bed, she placed the book on the other side of the room near her backpack. She must not have put the book far enough away because her dreams were full of scuttling and cartwheeling spiders. She stood, a glowing yellow figure, in a jungle that rippled and heaved with them—red ones, black ones, green ones, small ones, and an enormous one that waited for her in the deepest leafy darkness.

25

THE JUNGLE

When the rickety dented red kabu kabu stopped, the four of them piled in. Within seconds, five other guys tried to get in, too.

“Hey, no room!” Sasha said, kicking at a guy who tried to squeeze in. He shoved him out and slammed the door just in time. The car chugged off. “Damn, where are those guys going at this hour?”

“Home,” the driver said, laughing.

“Oh,” Sasha said. “Right.”

“Where na wan’ go?” the driver asked them.

“Ajegunle Market, please,” Sunny said.

“Shey you know e close now,” he said.

“It’s okay,” she said. “We’re just meeting someone around there.”

The drive took a half hour because of traffic. And by the time they got there, Sunny felt light-headed from the exhaust that wafted in through the car’s floor. It was so old and rusted that you could even see the road through large holes.

“I’ll pay,” Orlu said when they arrived at the market. Judging from the grin and number of thank-yous the driver gave, Orlu had tipped him well.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Sasha said. “I’ve got plenty of cash.”

“It’s New Year’s Day,” Orlu said. “Plus, today is important. Don’t worry about it.”

The large market was a series of wooden dividers, shacks, benches, and stalls. All were vacant. It was like a ghost town. “Let’s walk in a bit,” Orlu said.