He is quiet one moment, then he is looking at me different. He is looking at me like I am no longer little girl or friend but like I am stranger or wild animal. “You be wayo?”

“No wahala,” I am telling him, and I am holding my hands out, palm up like saying, Please, sah, my hands are empty, I have no weapon. “I wan no vex you. Just where are you getting metal from. I no wan take it, I just wan know where it is coming from.”

He is looking at me with wild eye, then he is calming and he is pointing to Lagos proper. My heart is thumping in my chest and I am feeling blood rise in my face because I am not wanting to go to Lagos even though I am going every day and looking for Xifeng and not finding her. But I am thinking, then I am asking him, “Where in Lagos?” because Lagos is big big city as big as many jungles.

He is looking at me like man with secret, and then he is dropping to ground and he is drawing map in the sand and moving stone to make building. And like this he is making noise and moving thing without speaking. Then he is looking at me and pointing and saying that this is Falomo Bridge. He is saying Falomo Bridge again and pointing above our head, and I am seeing what he is saying: that we are eating and sleeping and making bathroom under Falomo Bridge. And he is drawing Falomo Bridge long and long then he is stopping, and I am asking him why he stop and he is saying that there is nothing but water.

Then he is drawing rest of map and he is telling me what is Ikoyi in eastern part of Lagos Island, and I am seeing map in my head and suddenly I am knowing what is Ikoyi and what is Lagos Island and even Victoria Island and Iddo and Mainland Lagos. I am seeing it all. Like light that is flashing in my head. Man is showing me that he is getting chestpiece from man in Ikoyi and, too loud, I am asking him man’s name, and I need to know but other people is turning and seeing us and maybe thinking I am attacking him, so I am lowering my voice.

For many seconds he is looking at me silent and not saying anything, like he is doing calculation in his brain, then he is telling me, “It is very dangerous where I am get the metal from.”

“I am feeling no fear.”