They were all silent for a moment, the happy chatter of everyone else swelling around them. They ordered puff puffs, one of the only Nigerian dishes on the menu. In America, Nigerians explained to non-Nigerians that they were “Nigerian doughnuts,” a description that Sunny always found annoying. It was verbal shorthand that sold puff puffs short. They were sweet, soft, perfectly round pastries that were simply what they were. Sunny also ordered a large bottle of water. When the waiter brought the puff puffs and water, she drank it all and ate five large puff puffs, feeling more like herself with each yummy bite. The others quietly watched her as she drank and ate.

Finally, Sunny took a deep breath and leaned forward. The others did so, too. “Do your spirit faces ever talk to you?” she asked. When they looked at her with perplexed eyes, she sat back and gazed at them for a long time. She bit her lip, frowned, and then just spilled it all; she told them how Anyanwu was her and she was Anyanwu, but Anyanwu spoke to her and she spoke back. Why not? Who else would she tell? Who else had her back? And now Anyanwu was gone. Sunny was glad for the noisy atmosphere; it covered up the cracking and wavering in her voice as she spoke. Then she told them about her dreams of the end of the world. When she finished, she wiped the tired confused tears from her eyes and ate the last puff puff.

“Who are you, Sunny Nwazue?” Chichi asked, imitating the djinn from the basement as she took Sunny’s hand.

Orlu was staring at Sunny.

“I’m two people, and one of me is missing,” Sunny said.

“Maybe you just need rest.”

“Yeah. And you’re a free agent, so your spirit face is new to you,” Sasha said. “Maybe that’s why it feels like a completely separate person. And yours is old, that’s a lot of memory.”

“And not just old, busy,” Chichi added. “We’re all old. Orlu and I have been to see the seer Bola, and we know things about our past lives. We just don’t talk much about it. Sasha, too.”

“Yeah, I saw a Gullah seer in North Carolina,” he said. “She told me I’d done all sorts of crazy shit over the centuries. Slave rebellions of all kinds and some other wahala in the wilderness. On some level I’m aware of it. It’s all good.”

Sunny smiled, feeling a little better.

“I used to talk to my spirit face when I was little,” Orlu said.

“Me too!” Chichi said.

“But Ekwensu,” Orlu said. “What is it between you and one of the most powerful, scariest beings around?”

“Anyanwu is powerful, so she will have powerful enemies . . . and friends,” Chichi said proudly, squeezing Sunny’s hands.

“Word,” Sasha said. “What you did to those confraternity guys, Sunny, that was you, not Anyanwu.”

“I was just protecting my brother,” Sunny quietly said.