He opened his mouth to say something. Then instead paused for a very long time, an uncomfortable look on his face, again. “I . . . I am now, Sunny,” he said. “You should call Mummy and Daddy.”

She nodded, bringing out her cell phone. She watched Chukwu join the others in the kitchen. From his behavior, it was clear. The council had performed a trust knot on him, yet they hadn’t altered his memory. How much did he know? And why was he allowed to know? She called her parents.

32

REALIGNED

The drive back to Aba was different from the drive to Lagos. Chukwu gritted his teeth as he looked ahead at the road and mashed down on the accelerator. They were speeding down the expressway at eighty miles per hour.

“You might want to slow down,” Sunny said. She was sitting in the passenger seat this time, and her seat belt felt like a flimsy piece of toilet paper over her chest. Chukwu’s favorite album of all time was playing yet again, but in this moment, it was not helping matters at all. Track four of Who Is Jill Scott?, “Gettin’ in the Way,” belted out of the speakers. It added another layer of attitude to the foul one that Chukwu was cultivating.

“I know how to drive,” he muttered, looking straight ahead.

Behind him, Chichi sat snuggled close to Sasha, his arm over her shoulder. They were looking at one of Sasha’s books, whispering to each other, oblivious to Chukwu’s growing rage. They’d been this way since Sasha had saved Chichi from the Aku masquerade. Chichi hinted to Sunny that there was something amazing Sasha had done while in the maelstrom of biting insects that had cleared her mind and reminded her of why Sasha was her “truest love.” Of course Chichi didn’t bother to explain even the most mundane aspects of this to Chukwu. That wasn’t Chichi’s style.

Sunny looked back at her, giving her a dirty look. “Stop it!” she mouthed when Chichi glanced up at her.

“What?” Chichi asked.

Sasha smirked, pulling Chichi closer as he looked Chukwu in the eye through the rearview mirror.

Sunny turned back to the front as Chukwu pushed the car to drive faster.

“You’re not going to be able to get away from them by doing that,” Sunny muttered.

“Yeah, but we’ll get home faster,” he said.

Behind Sunny, Orlu was fast asleep. He hadn’t told her all that he’d been through with Grashcoatah, but it must have been something. He and the grasscutter had spent most of last night in quiet conversation, Orlu taking a mat and sitting beside the invisible creature, quietly speaking to him, and Grashcoatah grunting and sharing mental images with Orlu. Sunny had left them alone and gone to bed. Come morning, when she looked out the window, she saw Orlu lying on the mat, assumedly beside the still-invisible grasscutter.

To cover for his behavior, Chichi rather convincingly explained to Chukwu and Adebayo that Orlu was from some remote Christian sect where they liked to pray for hours outside and then sleep where they prayed. Nigeria was full of so many different types of Christians that neither Sunny’s brother nor Adebayo thought anything of it. Sunny wondered what Orlu and Grashcoatah had spoken about as she watched Orlu sleep so deeply that he didn’t notice the shenanigans among Sasha and Chichi and Chukwu.