Web of Lies Read Free Page B

Democracy movement until he began to receive death threats around the same time that the gunmen had come for Papa in Lagos.He had left London a year ago and said openly that he felt safer in his small village in Devon where he was the only Nigerian. He joked how General Abacha’s agents could be spotted a mile away in the countryside. But it wasn’t really funny. It was because of Abacha and his soldiers that they were stuck in this small flat with windows into which the sun hardly ever shone. Why else would they want to live thousands of miles away from their real home with its spacious, airy rooms, surrounded outside by flowers with colors of sunrise to sunset? Sade no longer even asked Papa when he thought they might return. Recently they had watched a wildlife program in which a hyena sank its teeth into the buttocks of a giraffe. Papa had said it was just like General Abacha.
    That hyena won’t stop until he has torn off the flesh all the way up the neck. Abacha wants to lick out Nigeria’s eyeballs so there won’t be anyone left to see his crimes.
    Even though she had been free of her own nightmares for the past few months, Sade knew that the nightmare in their country wasn’t over. Their father was not making things up.
    Papa broke the silence, pushing his chair back and forcing himself up. He glanced at his watch. He was late. He would come home after midnight. No wonder his black hair had become peppered with gray in the last two years.
    “Make sure you do your homework, young man, and not with the television on,” he said to Femi. “Remember that I’m the one asking your sister to check on you—for your own good.”
    Femi offered to help Sade do the drying up. He didn’t even argue about going to bed. She took it as his way of thanking her for asking Papa to give him his own key. He must have been really surprised. Indeed, she had surprised herself.
     
    F RIDAY 5 TH S EPTEMBER
    10:20 P.M .
    Ten minutes ago Femi pranced into my room to give me a message. He is clueless!
    F EMI : Are you still awake?
    M E : You’re meant to be in bed.
    F EMI : A boy at school told me to give you a message.
    M E : What?
    F EMI : He said Errol likes you.
    M E (horrified): Errol who? Who told you this?
    F EMI : Just an older boy. I don’t know his name.
    M E : How did he know you then?
    F EMI : He asked if you were my sister. Said we looked alike.
    M E : Cheek!
    I flung my Bugs Bunny at him—the one with the Cupid heart that Mariam gave me for my fourteenth birthday—but missed.
    M E : If he knows me, why didn’t he give me the message then?
    F EMI (giggling): Don’t ask me!
    M E : What’s funny? The only Errol I know of is Errol Richards, and he’s no joke. His sister Marcia is in my tutor group. They expelled him last year for dealing, but he’s still got friends in school. That’s how he operates.
    Femi avoided looking at me by staring at Bugs Bunny lying helpless on my carpet.
    M E : Did you hear what I said? You’re not telling me everything, are you?
    F EMI : I’m going to bed now.
    M E : If it’s Errol Richards, you better stay a million miles away, Femi Solaja. He’s trouble. If you get into trouble, the immigration people won’t let us stay!
    F EMI : Don’t lecture me, Sade! I thought you’d be pleased.
    He banged my door.
    I don’t like this, Iyawo. What game is Lizard Eyes playing now?

4
A Present
    The first thing Femi saw on the kitchen table on Monday morning was a key. It was placed in front of the chair where he usually sat. Papa’s head was bent toward the little radio. Femi’s first instinct was to run and hug Papa, but a tight little string inside himself held him back. He knew that Papa was going to talk to him when he had finished listening to the news. It was something about Africa. That meant Papa would be listening even more intently.
    “Nigerian Alpha jets attacked a ship docked in the Sierra Leone port of Freetown yesterday. A Nigerian commander claimed that it was carrying nerve