I lift the skin to my eyes, and I see the late afternoon world, different and new, through the patterned scales. Smudged tree trunks rise up to the sky, and the broad leaves turn emerald in the last rays of sunset light. My heart stills, and beauty pours into me.

“Darnell.” Lottie’s voice brings me out of my daze. “Tell me who hit you. Was it Bosman or one his sons? Did you steal eggs from their chicken house again?”

Darnell takes the skin from me, and I murmur, “Thanks. That was my first time holding a brown mamba.”

“Good. Good.” Darnell tucks the skin into his treasure nest and ignores Lottie’s questions. He covers his hiding place with grass and twigs, and smiles at Lottie. It’s a smile of pure joy.

“Bye-bye, Lo-Lo. Bye-bye, Adi,” he says. “Bye-bye.”

Adi? I guess that’s Darnell’s name for me.

“Where are you going, Darnell?” Lottie asks, though it’s obvious that he’s about to run away from school.

“Purple. Yellow,” he says. “Far down and away.”

The words make no sense to me. Only Darnell understands Darnell.

“Wait.” Lottie grabs for Darnell’s arm, but he’s too fast and he runs for the river. Lottie chases him through the trees, and Darnell is halfway down to the riverbank by the time I catch up with them.

“Don’t you dare go into that water,” Lottie yells. “The crocodiles will get you.”

Darnell kicks off his shoes and plunges into the shallow end with his shoes held over his head. He walks deeper. Water laps at his knees and then his stomach, and I hope he can swim, because one wrong move and he’ll go under. Lottie and I stand on the riverbank, puffing for breath and helpless to change Darnell’s course.

“Come back, Darnell.” Lottie tries anyway. “You’ll lose your way in the dark.”

Darnell keeps walking, the river water up to his collarbones now. A long shape glides from the bank and disappears beneath the river’s surface. A strangled sound comes from the back of my throat. Crocodiles take dozens of people every year, and the changeover between day and night is their favorite hunting time. Bright eyes shine in the dying light, and I open my mouth to scream but no sound comes out.

“Crocodile!” Lottie runs to the water’s edge. “Hurry, Darnell. Hurry.”

Darnell wades to the opposite bank, and his bare feet drag against the sandy bottom. Mother says, The strength of the crocodile is in the water, and Darnell has got to move fast onto dry land or the crocodile will catch him.

“Run!” My voice comes back full-force. “Run!”

Darnell hears us and vaults out of the water. He scrambles halfway up the opposite bank and reaches safety a second before the crocodile launches onto the sand and snaps its jaws at thin air. The shiny monster begins to sink back into the river, but the fear courses through me still. I press my hands to my stomach to ease the knot there. I keep my eyes on the crocodile, but it slips under the surface and disappears.