Where Women are Kings (12 page)

‘Come back here, Jasmin! That’s not nice, is it?’ Her mother was tall and had a pair of giant sunglasses on top of her head. ‘Look at you! I’m your Aunty Chanel,’ she said, shaking Elijah’s hand so hard his whole body shook. She knelt down to get a closer look at him and he got a closer look at her. He’d seen a photograph of Aunty Chanel standing next to Nikki, but in the photograph she’d been wearing a rain
jacket and had white skin and no make-up. In real life she was strange looking. She had bright orange skin, the colour of a tangerine, which smelt of swimming pools. On top of her eyes were two butterflies. She looked like a woman in a fashion magazine where they’d printed the colours wrong, or it had been raining and the colours got all mixed up. She wore a lot of make-up and her face and neck did not match.

‘What a handsome boy! So gorgeous! Like a mini supermodel.’ She flicked her head at Nikki and they shared a smile, then turned her head back to Elijah. ‘You’re a cool dude. Jay-Z! Oh my God, you look exactly like a young Jay-Z!’

‘Chanel!’ Nikki tutted and moved over to them, pulling Elijah backwards towards her. ‘Really!’

‘What? I’m just pointing out to my little gangsta rapper here how coolio he is.’

Nikki took a breath so suddenly that Elijah heard the air travel into her mouth. She put her face next to Aunty Chanel’s ear and hissed, ‘Chanel, stop it!’

Aunty Chanel rolled her eyes.

Nikki looked at Aunty Chanel for a long time, then she turned to Elijah and smiled. ‘Why don’t you go and play with Jasmin?’ she said, and pointed over to the other end of the garden where Jasmin had run and was already on the swing, swinging really fast. Elijah had lots of questions, like why Chanel was wearing butterflies, and why her skin was orange, and why she was calling him J.C. (which is what Mama sometimes called Jesus Christ). But Nikki pushed him gently towards Jasmin and so he walked away.

As he turned around, Chanel was blowing a big bubble from bubblegum and it popped on her face and she laughed. Elijah had never seen an adult pop bubblegum. Aunty Chanel
was wearing a pair of jeans that had been cut into shorts, but whoever cut them hadn’t done a very good job as the edges were all squiggly and the pockets hung down. Elijah wasn’t very good at cutting but he could have done a better job than that. Maybe Jasmin cut the jeans for her mum.

Aunty Chanel threw her arm around Nikki. ‘He’s a miracle,’ she said. ‘So gorgeous and no sleepless nights! I might adopt, myself, next time.’

Nikki smiled at Elijah.

Elijah walked slowly towards the swing at the other end of the garden, taking deep breaths on the way. The wizard was walking around inside him again. He looked at Jasmin swinging against the sky, scattering birds above her against a cloud, her ponytail whooshing. Jasmin swung her legs really high and kicked out with each swing. She was so high but she didn’t look scared at all. Elijah kept his eyes on her swishing brown ponytail but he could see her face underneath it, her round cheeks, big, dark-brown eyes and the small jumping skin at the side of her eye.

‘Jasmin, sweetie, play with Jay-Z!’ Aunty Chanel burst into laughter. ‘Come on, Jasmin; remember what we talked about.’

Elijah felt his face get hot. Everyone talked about him. She probably knew Elijah wasn’t allowed to live with Mama any more. Suddenly Jasmin stopped swinging her legs and jumped from really high up, straight on to the grass. She looked at Elijah, then grabbed his hand and pulled him to the plastic swingball set, where she put a plastic racket in his fist and raised the ball high, before letting it drop down. Elijah tried to hit it back but the wizard was laughing at him inside his tummy. It was loud enough that he felt sure Jasmin could hear it, but she didn’t say anything. The ball flew between
them, bouncing off their rackets without them having to move much. Elijah could hear Aunty Chanel making barking sounds then laughing loudly. She mooed like a cow then shouted out, ‘Did anyone see any animals in the garden? I can hear farmyard animals.’

Jasmin tutted and hit the ball really hard. ‘I hate her,’ she said, looking at Aunty Chanel.

Elijah gasped. Jasmin’s face was crunched up, angry.

‘She won’t let me live in America with my dad. And she always tries to put me in scratchy dresses and she says the same thing about a hundred times. It’s so embarrassing.’ Jasmin opened her mouth, poked her tongue at the house then put her tongue back in and grinned. One of her teeth was missing. She noticed Elijah staring at it and shut her mouth quickly. ‘There’s a girl in my class who has fourteen plastic ponies. She’s totally crazy and her toenails are painted purple. She’s not my best friend. She told my mum that there was a bubblegum at the bottom of my ice cream and my mum took it away and said I was too young and ate it herself! She used to be my best friend, but not any more.’

Jasmin moved her body close to Elijah. She put her hand on top of his hair and rubbed her thumb over the top of his head. ‘I’m going to America soon to be with my dad. America is the best place in the world. You don’t have to go to school and everyone is normal in America. There are no weird people like Mum. And Lady Gaga lives there and she’s my favourite.’

Jasmin dropped her hand from Elijah’s head and then touched his arm. There was a small round mark at the top of his arm where Darren had burnt him with a cigarette. It was the size of a pea. Jasmin put her fingertip on it until it disappeared. Elijah held his breath. ‘We’re cousins,’ she said.
‘I’ve never had a cousin before.’ She looked at Elijah’s face with unblinking eyes. ‘But I won’t be friends with you just because my mum said I have to. You are totally crazy.’

*

That night, Nikki tucked Elijah in and read him a few pages of
The Little Prince
, and kissed his head twice.

‘Can I ask you something?’ he said.

‘Of course. You know that.’

Elijah breathed deeply. Asking for things was quite hard. ‘Do you have a torch I can use?’

Nikki laughed. She opened the curtains slightly and then closed them again. ‘I can imagine why you need a torch,’ she said. ‘How was it, meeting Jasmin?’

‘She can swing really high,’ he said.

‘She certainly can,’ said Nikki. She tucked the quilt up around Elijah’s ears. ‘She’s completely fearless.’

Elijah felt his ears open to take in these words. ‘She’s not scared of anything?’

Nikki shook her head. ‘Nothing at all. And – yes – I’ll get you a torch; we’ve got one in the drawer downstairs. But you must promise me five minutes only please, OK? No staying up all night playing torches with Jasmin.’

‘I promise,’ said Elijah and he looked right into her eyes so she knew he meant it.

As Nikki went to look for the torch, Elijah tried to imagine not being frightened of anything at all. He had never not been frightened of anything. Not ever. And he had never met anyone who wasn’t frightened of anything. Jasmin must have superpowers. He wished he had that superpower, of not being frightened of anything at all.

‘Here it is.’ Nikki walked back into his room carrying a torch. She showed him how to switch it on and then kissed
his head again before leaving him in darkness. ‘You can kiss me goodnight too, if you want,’ said Nikki.

Elijah looked at the skin on her cheek. It was very pale. He worried that, if he kissed her, the wizard would leap out of his mouth. But her smile was still in her eyes and her freckles were darker than ever, so he leant towards her and risked just a very quick kiss, right on the part of her cheek where her freckles were all crowded together, and he didn’t feel the wizard move at all.

‘Goodnight, Elijah,’ whispered Nikki. She smiled so widely that Elijah could see a silver tooth right at the back of her mouth.

‘Why do you have treasure in your mouth?’ he asked. He pointed to the tooth.

Nikki didn’t say anything, but she kissed his head and laughed as she left the room and closed the door.

Elijah crept out of bed and opened his curtains. Jasmin was already standing there, in front of her map. He saw her in the light and then she disappeared. Suddenly she flashed her torch three times.

He held his torch in front of him and flashed the torch on and off five times. Jasmin would be so surprised to see him with a torch.

He looked down at the torch in his hand, making out the shape of it in the darkness. When he looked back up, Jasmin had turned her light on and was banging her head with her hand. She poked out her tongue and then shut her curtains.

*

Elijah could feel Mama smiling whenever he saw Granddad’s face. Granddad’s face was even more Nigerian than Obi’s and he went to church all the time. Elijah felt wrapped up whenever he was nearby, like he was inside a blanket. He loved seeing
Granddad’s soft hair at the doorway, and seeing how Obi lit up like a torch when his dad was around. Elijah’s skin matched Obi’s and Granddad’s almost exactly, but Granddad’s was dry and loose around the elbows as he had lived in his skin for so many years. When Granddad had started bringing him dead things and Nigerian things last week, Nikki had rolled her eyes but allowed it. At first it was a rabbit skin, so velvety and the exact shape of a squashed rabbit. Elijah held it all day and slept with it underneath his pillow. He had spent hours staring at the wooden masks with their wide grins and slits where the eyes should be, and laughed when Nikki said they made her shiver. The morning after the torches, Granddad brought a drum made from a stretched skin, so soft. Elijah suddenly remembered Mama holding his hand in a bowl and filling the bowl with holy water. His hand was badly cut, stinging, and balloons of blood had filled the bowl and brushed against his fingertips. Mama had sung a song and smiled at him with her eyes and it was the softest thing he’d ever felt.

But that day, when Granddad appeared at the back door, his hair was outlined by something else. Antlers! Nikki looked at Obi and muttered, ‘No way.’

But Obi grinned and whispered, ‘Wow! Where is he getting all this stuff?’

‘Hello, Elijah; I’m glad I caught you. I have something for your collection.’

‘Collection?’ Nikki folded her arms into triangles and put her hands on her hips. ‘He’s not collecting dead things, that’s for sure. I don’t mind the Nigerian things – even those gruesome masks – but any more dead things are out of the question. The rabbit skin is bad enough.’

Obi laughed and Granddad waved the antlers slightly. They were beautiful: white and smooth and the shape of
jagged mountains. ‘Not dead things,’ said Granddad. ‘These nature items are alive.’

Then he put the antlers on top of his head and danced around the kitchen making a sound that wasn’t human. Elijah looked at Nikki, who was smiling by then.

After lunch, Granddad helped put the antlers on Elijah’s wall. ‘You can use them for hanging up your dressing gown,’ he said. ‘Your room is becoming much better. More suited to your interests.’

Elijah looked at his room. Already, the football posters were down, along with any hint of dinosaur. It felt more like home. And with his rabbit skin, the stones that Granddad had started collecting in a large, clear jar and the antlers making shadows on his wall, it felt like the best room he’d ever stayed in.

‘Mum and Dad want to speak to Ricardo, so I thought we’d take a walk,’ said Granddad. He knelt down. ‘I know you believe in God. Ricardo said you wanted to know if we believed in God before you would agree to meet us all, so I thought maybe I could take my grandson to church.’ He smiled at Elijah. ‘Or we could just go find some squirrels in the park. It’s up to you.’

Something wriggled in Elijah’s stomach and he swallowed. Mama always said he must pray to God to help him with the wizard. Mama thought the church was the safest place of all. Maybe, if he went, he would find someone to help him, or the wizard would be so scared in such a sacred place that it would just run away.

Elijah nodded. ‘I’d like to go to church, please.’ He smiled and took Granddad’s hand.

Granddad laughed. ‘What a good boy,’ he said.

But Elijah could feel the wizard, churning up his stomach,
and he had to hold tight to Granddad or the wizard might take hold of Elijah’s body and fly him far away.

‘Come on,’ said Granddad.

They left the house and walked for about ten minutes. Granddad talked about a fox he wanted to buy Elijah – dead, but stuffed so it looked alive. ‘I’ve been watching it for five days, but too many are bidding,’ he said. Elijah nodded but he couldn’t speak. He focused on pushing the churning away.

‘Just down here,’ said Granddad, and they turned down a little alley and the wizard slid up into Elijah’s eyes and pulled the walls in close about them and the pavement up high. Elijah tried to breathe slowly.

They came back on to the street, which was filled with too-bright light and the sound of angels singing. ‘We’re late!’ Granddad tugged Elijah across the road towards a low brick building with a spire stuck in its flat roof, and the sound of angels got louder. They were so, so happy and the wizard was so, so angry, swirling round inside Elijah.

The wizard would not let Elijah go in. It had glued Elijah’s feet to the ground and Granddad was looking back at him. He would know now. Granddad would see that Elijah was so full of wizard he couldn’t enter a church and he would tell Nikki and Obi and they would send him away.

‘Is something wrong, Elijah?’ Granddad said, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Elijah tried to shake his head but he could not.

‘Maybe today isn’t a good day for the church,’ said Granddad. ‘They have a visiting pastor, and he’s not as good.’

Elijah blinked. The wizard stopped pounding in his ears and left his limbs and went back to pacing in his belly. Elijah nodded.

‘Yes, I think today it’s better to worship God in the park.’

Elijah felt his forehead wrinkle. Why was God in the park?

‘Elijah, God is everywhere. You don’t have to go into church to speak to him. He is even in here.’ Granddad held a hand to Elijah’s chest and it was as if Granddad was putting a little bit of God in him and the wizard froze and shrivelled up.

They walked away from the church. ‘Let’s talk about something cheerful,’ said Granddad.