Manifest

Thirty-two

Nature sat in the car, parked by the side of the road, opposite the street where Abasi Isong's gathering was. He sent a message to Dara telling her he'd arrived, then deleted the message.

He logged out of the email he used for ekpo correspondence and deleted texts that were suspicious. He also went through his call log and deleted all the recent calls to and from anyone back at the compound. He left all the calls he'd made to Dara's old number because she'd trashed the number the moment she defected. He deleted the ones from her new number. Mbono did not have that one and there was no use directing them to it.

Nervous, he adjusted his pin on his chest. He hadn't worn it just for pretend. When he woke that morning, he'd walked by several ekpo who weren't wearing their pins. It was an mbono tradition, after all. If they didn't want to wear it anymore, Nature wasn't going to stop them. But he hadn't wanted to remove his. He'd spent too much of his life seeped in the faith to toss it all away. Abasi Enyong had seen the pin and hadn't made a comment about it, which meant that it was okay. It was stubborn and mildly foolish, but Nature didn't want to have to choose.

When the time came, he was going to do what had to be done. If asked to choose between his life or the life of an mbono who wanted to kill him, the choice would be easy. That didn't mean he abandoned everything he knew or cared about. There was also the fact that he was going to marry an mbono. The last thing he wanted was a home divided. He wasn't going to ask her to choose because he wasn't planning to choose. He was mbono and ekpo. Warrior and scholar. The pin was only proof of that.

Dara showed up for breakfast with her own pin, firmly on her chest. She didn't make a big deal of it and Nature was grateful for that. A squabble about who was more loyal to what was intimately redundant. The whole point of this was for them all to have a choice. Dara understood that. Nature loved her more for it.

By lunch, without a single word, one by one, the pins began to reappear on the chests of ekpo around.

The street by the gathering was lit by solar lamps but it was empty enough so Nature could see all the way down. Cars were double-parked. There was no space to park, any closer than he was. At the beginning of the road, there was a car with lights on inside.

He was about to get out when his phone rang.

"How far?" he asked.

"I might need you to hold off on the necklace for now," Dara said.

"I'm sorry. Please repeat that."

"The tusk was delayed. Apparently, Abasi Isong is raining on the boundary. And it's acidic or something. Mr. Martins can't get in."

"Are you saying I shouldn't go in?"

"No. Go in. You've already taken too long, Nature."

"But I should wait on the necklace."

"Yes. Go in but don't use the necklace yet. I'm on my way to Ini, right now."

"What are you doing in Ini? You know what? Don't tell me in case I get interrogated."

"Stay safe, Nature."

"You too."

He removed the necklace from his pocket when he cut the call. They'd take away his phone and his keys and any personal items on his body. If someone who recognized the necklace, saw him, they'd know something was up. They'd know ekpo were coming.

"You can do this," he said to himself. "You can do this."

There was a roll of masking tape in the dashboard. Quickly, he unbuckled his belt and opened his trousers. After pushing the seat back to give him more room, he raised his leg and strapped the necklace to his leg, inside his boxers. As audacious as mbono claimed to be, none of them would have the mind to search him till they found it there.