“That’s it,” he is saying, and it is looking like he is calming down, but I am seeing his vital signs and heart rate, and I know that he is still dangerous, and I am seeing him reach for his temple as he is saying, “I’m calling the police,” and I am rushing fast fast to him, and I am crossing the whole room in one step, and my fingers are wrapping around his wrist and holding him still, and he is fearing me with his eyes and looking at me like I am monster who is trapping his wrist like this.

Blood is rushing in my ears, then I am hearing Xifeng saying soft soft, “Uzo.” Then, again, “Uzo, it’s okay. We’re leaving.” She looks to the man and says, with firmer voice, “We’re leaving. We’re going. We’re sorry to bother you.”

But I am knowing this man and how he is. I am knowing that as soon as I am letting him go, he is calling police on us. And I know this is being dangerous for us because before we get to Lagos, Xifeng is telling me that nobody is to be knowing what we are doing. It is against the law to be speaking of the war. In fact, it is against the law to even be remembering it. She is telling me of people who are having their rememberings of the war emptied out by the virus the government is feeding into their brains. And it is being our mission to be freeing them. To be helping them to remember what is happening, that war is happening, and that killing and dying is happening, and she is telling me that it is important to be remembering these thing because it is helping it not to happen again. And government is being wrong and we are being right and, like this, I am being soldier but in bigger and better war.

“Uzo,” Xifeng saying to me. “Uzo, let go of the man’s wrist.”

But I am not wanting to. I am wanting him to be quiet. I am wanting to snap his neck so he is not shouting and making much noise. I am wanting to bury his body and be erasing him from the world so no one is even knowing he is existing. But Xifeng is telling me to let go, and she is saying it soft soft like she is speaking to me when I am having epileptic fit and wanting to be held by her.