Web of Lies Read Free

no one doubted, however, was that Lizard Eyes had become a “babyfather” while he was away. The “babymother” had also been in year eleven at Avon High. But as soon as it was known that the girl was pregnant, she had disappeared. People said that she had gone to live with relatives out of London. Shortly afterward Lizard Eyes also vanished. The first rumor was that he had been charged for making an underage girl pregnant. Marcia shut up anyone who asked her, but she didn’t actually deny it. When the real reason for her brother’s absence was printed in the local paper, however, no one was surprised. There were not many ways that a sixteen-year-old in this part of South London could afford new designer outfits almost every week.
     
    With her back turned to the gang across the road, Sade kept her eyes trained on the glass entrance doors. She willed Femi to appear. Would he really just ignore Papa’s lecture? If he had gone home ahead of her, he wouldn’t be able to get into the flat until she arrived. Heaven knows who would be hanging around the stairwell. Femi had been begging Papa for weeks to give him his own key, but their father had stubbornly resisted. He wanted Femi to come home with Sade.
    By four o’clock she had started to panic. Hurrying home, she risked the shortcut between the derelict petrol station and the half-finished houses from which thieveskept stealing the building materials. Young men sometimes hung aimlessly around the old garage—one reason for normally avoiding this path, even though it saved at least ten minutes. Fortunately, no one was there today. As she came out from a stretch of overgrown grass, she could see their gray concrete block of flats, but there was no sign of Femi anywhere along the second-floor balcony. He wouldn’t be waiting by the stairs because of the smell. She scanned the pavement around the block. Children sometimes rode bikes there, but today it was empty. She breathed rapidly as she took the stairs two at a time. No one was here, either. Only debris in the corners.
    She was fiddling with her key in the lock, wondering what to do next, when their neighbor Mrs. Beattie poked her head out from next door. Her pink scalp shone through fine silvery strands of hair.
    “Ah, there you are, at last! I saw that brother of yours sitting outside on your doorstep. The poor mite looked quite deserted!”
    Femi appeared from behind her. He avoided Sade’s gaze while Mrs. Beattie continued.
    “I said to myself, was it not my Christian duty to ask him in? You know what types hang around here. But he’s been safe with me, and I’ve given him a good cup of tea and a slice of apple pie.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Beattie,” Femi said politely.
    Sade had difficulty restraining herself until they were inside their flat.
    “Why didn’t you wait for me?” she demanded in a fierce whisper. The walls were thin, and she didn’t wantMrs. Beattie hearing her shout.
    Femi ambled toward his bedroom, head bent, shutting her out.
    “I didn’t see you,” he mumbled. “Too many people…Papa is crazy!”
    Before Sade could reply, he had slammed the bedroom door.
     
    F RIDAY 5 TH S EPTEMBER
    5 P.M .
    I want to scream, Iyawo! Your eyes gazing downward, so silently, over your polished ebony cheeks usually calm me. When my fingers brush across your carved braids, I try to pretend that if you could just look up, your eyes would be as deep and comforting as Mama’s were.
    But that little trick is no use today. You are just a wooden head sitting on my desk when I need you to be flesh and blood and to have real arms to hug me! Yet here I am, still scribbling in my book…“our” book. When Counselor Mimi got me to write my first Iyawo book, I admit that you were a life-saver. But now, maybe it would be better if I could scream out loud—except I wouldn’t know whom to scream at more, Femi or that Lizard Eyes! Yes, he is back. I was hoping he would disappear forever. Stupid me. Where would