Crowns and Codebreakers Read Free

with the airline,’ she said.
    Dad was not getting on well.
    Minnie could hear him and Mum whispering in the hallway. It sounded a lot like, ‘You tell her,’ ‘No, you tell her,’ but Minnie couldn’t be sure.
    Gran sipped her tea slowly.
    Finally Dad came in. ‘I’m sorry, Mama,’ he said, ‘but the airline don’t know where your bag is. It isn’t at the airport. Maybe one of the other passengers took it. The one whose bag you have perhaps?’
    Gran tilted her head. Her blue headwrap swayed impressively. ‘Then they must call the passenger.’
    ‘They have. The number on their record doesn’t connect though. I’m sorry, but they said we’ll have to wait for the passenger to get in touch.’
    ‘ Tsk. My luggage was labelled properly, with my name and the address I’m staying at. Why could the other passenger not have done the same with their case, hmm? Then we could go to them, and we would not have to sit around waiting for them to call the airline. I bet it was the boy I saw travelling on his own. He was a tiny little thing, though he ate the whole flight. The air stewards made sure he had his own body weight in free peanuts. He was too young to fly alone, I thought. And see! Too young to know about labelling luggage properly.’
    ‘I’m sure his family will get in touch with the airline once they realise the mistake,’ Mum said.
    Gran looked disgusted. ‘Do you really think someonewill return Lagos’s finest hibiscus tea for some cheap boys’ clothes and a torn postcard?’
    Torn? Gran made it sound like a forgotten bit of rubbish. Was that all it was? Minnie opened her mouth to speak. Then closed it again. She’d felt something holding that postcard, a sense of menace. Whatever Gran thought, Minnie knew there was something badly wrong with that juju card.
    And she was certain that whoever owned it would want it back.

Chapter Three
    The phone didn’t ring for the rest of the evening. Mum and Dad did their best to make Gran forget her missing luggage. Mum had cooked jollof rice to celebrate Gran’s arrival. Gran picked at it, pushing the grains around with her fork.
    ‘Is it all right?’ Mum asked.
    ‘Delicious,’ Gran said, without taking a mouthful. ‘Really lovely. But I can’t help thinking about my tea.’
    ‘Don’t worry,’ Dad said. ‘There’s an Indian shop on the high street. They might have hibiscus tea.’
    ‘Why would an Indian shop have Nigerian tea?’ Gran asked, baffled.
    Dad shrugged. ‘It’s the way of it.’
    Gran nodded. ‘I see. I thought I was ready to come here, oh. I thought I was prepared. But now, I do not know. Men make plans, but God acts.’
    Gran sounded so low that Minnie reached out and rubbed her shoulder. She wanted to say, ‘It’s only tea.’ But she was beginning to see that, for Gran, it wasn’t only tea. It was a new life, a new country, new rules. If an old woman didn’t know where to buy her favourite tea, that woman might well feel lost.
    The kitchen table, which had always been fine for three of them, felt overcrowded today. Everyone touching elbows and reaching for someone else’s drink.
    ‘You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep,’ Mum said.
    Gran smiled gratefully.
    They all went to bed early. The grown-ups seemed relieved the day was over.
    Minnie let Gran get ready for bed in their room. Minnie went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth slowly. She got changed into her pyjamas. Was it going to be like this forever? Stepping out of jeans while trying not to fall and crack her head on the sink? Gran was weird and interesting, but she would be three hundred times better if she had her own room. Minnie sighed and bundled up her clothes in her arms.
    She edged her way into her room. There was nowhere to put her bundle, so she left it beside the door. Gran wasalready under the Hello Kitty duvet, reading a small black book. She was wearing a nightdress that came right up under her chin. Without her headwrap, Gran’s hair