Where Women are Kings Read Free Page A

spirits
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    ‘I am wicked, under the direct control of Satan himself. Bishop told me so.’ Elijah began to sob, a large tear rolling slowly down to his jawline before falling to the table. He touched it with his thumb and rubbed it on the table until dry. ‘I don’t want to be wicked.’
    ‘Who is Bishop? Is he from your church?’
    Elijah opened his eyes but not his mouth.
    Ricardo frowned. ‘Well, whoever he is, you should know that you are not wicked in any way. You are a lovely boy who deserves to be happy and safe and playing.’
    Elijah knew that Ricardo didn’t believe he was evil. He tried to speak to him telepathically, which is when you think straight inside someone else’s brain. It is true. Look at my eyes. It is true. ‘I am Elijah,’ he said, ‘but I’m also full of evil. I bring sickness and bad luck and misery to anyone near me. I am full up with badness.’
    Ricardo put his hand on top of Elijah’s. ‘It sounds very confusing. I’m so glad you managed to talk to me. Can you tell me about the Bishop?’
    Elijah blinked quickly. ‘He is a man of God.’
    Ricardo squeezed Elijah’s hand and then wrote something in his notebook. ‘I’ll try and get in touch with him: can you remember his name? Or the name of his church?’
    Elijah shook his head.
    ‘Don’t worry. But, meanwhile, you must understand that, whatever anyone has ever said to you – even a man of God – you are a good, good boy. Anyway, everyone’s a bit naughty sometimes. Even me, believe it or not!’ Ricardo laughed deep from his stomach. ‘And I’m sure that Bishop would never say that you are wicked. Sometimes, in Brazil, where I come from, the priests talk about heaven and hell and God and Satan. Is that what your Bishop was like?’
    Elijah stopped blinking. His head nodded before he could stop it.
    ‘Well, if your Bishop is anything like the priests I know, he will know that children are good and not wicked.’
    Elijah felt his head begin to shake but he managed to stop it in time.
    ‘And maybe if things weren’t very good at home with Mummy then it was easy to get confused during church and think about bad things.’ Ricardo lifted his head. ‘It must be awful to think that you’re bad inside.’
    Elijah blinked slowly and pushed tears back inside his face by making his stomach twist tightly into a knot. Ricardo was wrong about everything. Things were always good at home with Mama. Always. He looked down at Ricardo’s feet, stretching out in front of him under his side of the table.
    ‘Thank you for telling me about Bishop; as I’ve said to you before, you can tell me anything at all. You’re completely safe with me.’ Ricardo put his hand across the table on top of Elijah’s hand, but Elijah felt his hand shaking. He didn’t want to risk touching Ricardo. Grown-ups said that he wascompletely safe with them but he was only completely safe with Mama.
    Mama.
    Even thinking of Mama changed everything. When he thought of Mama, the table moved and shook and the ground fell away.
    There was quiet in the kitchen for a short time, apart from the clock ticking above Sue’s cupboards. Elijah looked at the window, and the plants lining the windowsill, which Sue had told him were called orchids. They only needed a tiny bit of water every few weeks and the flowers were the pinkest pink. One of the flowers was white with dots on it and crept up a thin green pole. He had felt a petal earlier that day with his thumb, and he couldn’t work out if he was the petal or the thumb, both were so soft.
    ‘How long have we known each other?’ Ricardo smiled the smile he saved only for Elijah. Ricardo’s face was usually square, his mouth flat, and when he smiled he showed his teeth. But the special smile he saved for Elijah was when his eyes twinkled. Elijah had never seen him use that smile on anyone else. It was like a secret between them. ‘This is the first time you’ve told me properly that you feel like you’re