The Girl with the Louding Voice(26)

“I am coming,” he say. He bend his head, say something to Khadija’s ear. She nod her head, be like ten minutes before her head move.

Bamidele stand to his feets. “I am going now,” he say, and before I can talk anything, he turn around and start running back to the path we just come from.

Just then, a thunder scatter boom from the sky.

It is Death, making a announcement, giving us big, big warning.



* * *





Many minutes pass, and Bamidele have not come back.

I hold Khadija’s hand, counting the seconds, the minutes, and watching the river. The two girls by the water are helping each other, putting their clay pot on top each of their head. When they reach my front, they stop. They look like twins childrens. Their face is the same round of tomato, the same hole in their left cheek when they smile, but one of them is having skin the color of cocoa powder, and the other, her skin is the yellow-brown of fresh bread.

“Is all okay?” the dark one ask, talking the way Kere people speak, clicking her tongue with every word she speak, making it a bit hard for me to be understanding.

“What happen to her?” she ask. “You need help?”

“She is sick,” I say. “I am waiting for”—I think a moment—“for the Babalawo. He will give her cure when he reach here. Thank you.”

“May the gods be with her,” they say together as they walk pass my front.

The sky have eat up the morning sun. Everywhere is gray, dark. The breeze is whistling, the air cold. I shiver, grind my teeths together. The fisherman have take his canoe and go far, far inside the river. Who will I call to help me?

I wipe Khadija’s face again, her cool head. “How is the pain?” I ask. Fear have become a wall around my heart, it is wanting to squeeze my breath out, but because of Khadija, I am climbing the wall of fear and making myself strong. “You feel better?” I ask.

“Yes,” she say, move her lip, as if she is thinking to smile. “The pain is going.”

“Good,” I say. “Remember that lawyer song I been wanting to sing for you but didn’t able to because me and you been so busy with housework?”

She don’t answer, but I keep talking. “I want to sing it for you now. I think you will like the song. Is a very sweet song, Khadija. You will hear it? Hello, fine girl . . .” My voice break a little, but I strong myself, keep singing:

If you want to become a big, big lawyer

You must go to plenty, plenty school

If you want to wear a high, high shoe,

And walk, ko-ka-ko

My voice is shaking, fulling with tears, but I keep trying, keep pushing myself to sing: “Ko-ka—”

“Adunni,” Khadija say.

“Yes, Khadija,” I say, “I am here. Singing. Singing for you and for Baby. Are you liking the song? Is Baby liking the song?”

“Where is Bamidele?”

“He have not come back,” I say.

“When will he come back?” Khadija ask. “It been too long now. Where is he?”

“He is—” I stop my talking. What if Bamidele have run away, and he is not never coming back and he is leaving Khadija here to die?

Khadija drag her breath. “Will Bamidele cheat me?” she ask. “Will he leave me here like this?”

Before I can check my head for a correct answer, a deep cry come out from her, the howl of a dog in trapping. I look up, look Death sailing up there, and I tell it to be finding somebody else. I tell it to go and form a car and kill that shitting goat. But when I look Khadija, I know she is welcoming Death with her eyes. She and Death are becoming one, husband and wife.

“Adunni, take care of my children,” she say, her voice so small, so weak.

“No,” I say, and gripping her cold hand, “Khadija, not me. You. You take care of your childrens. You take care of my childrens too. Me and you, we stay together, we fight Labake together. We laugh Morufu together. Me and you. Not so, Khadija, not so? Okay, wait, wait a moment, let me sing another song. A song about—” I shake her shoulders.

Her body is moving, shaking, but her eyesballs, wide-open, be looking the gray of the sky, seeing only what the spirit can see. I put my face on top her breast, which is swelling with new milk for her dead baby, as I am starting to cry more hard and shake her shoulder.

Wake up, Khadija, I beg her with all of my soul. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

But it is of no use.

Khadija is dead.

And Bamidele have not come back.





CHAPTER 16

I push myself up and look around me.

The fisherman is starting to come back. I am wanting to wait for him to come, to ask him to help me so we can carry Khadija and take her to Morufu, but my head is sounding a warning. If I wait for him, he will think it is me that kill Khadija. He didn’t see when Bamidele follow me come here. He will carry me to the village chief of Ikati. I think of Lamidi the farmer. Of how they flog him for seven days. I will find Bamidele. Must. I will find him first, then me and Bamidele, we will come back here, and we will carry Khadija go home for burial. He will tell the village chief, Morufu, and Khadija childrens what happen. He will tell them he give her pregnants. That his family have a curse. That there is a soap to baff the curse away, but he didn’t come back to give Khadija the soap.