Manifest

Thirty-four

Eddie rubbed his hands together as he tip-toed to the door. Halfway through, he stepped on a stone and hissed in pain. Seriously, he was getting tired of getting caught without shoes. At least when Enyong kidnapped him, he'd had the decency to give Eddie sandals. Abasi Isong didn't care if earthworms chewed through Eddie's feet.

The guard was standing very close to the wall, so it was difficult to see her from the angle where he was. If he moved to the other side of the door, he would be able to see her. She'd also spot him, easily so, he stayed where he was.

He didn't have to touch her. Like he'd done to the kind driver back in Itu, all he had to do was think it. Come in here. Eddie held out his hand and closed his eyes, focusing on the only part of her he could see, which was her left shoulder. Come.

The mbono turned around and walked into the hut and stopped.

"Come closer," he said, and she obeyed. "I'm sorry. I'm very sorry about this," he said, the closer she got.

According to Abasi Isong, all he had to do was touch the mbono and he'd know everything there was to know about her. If she'd been telling the truth, then that was how Abasi Enyong learned English in a flash. Eddie could learn to fight, too. He could learn to escape and climb trees. He could free Enyong just by touching this one girl and they'd be out of the place before anyone knew what was happening. "I'm sorry."

The moment she was close enough, he held her head with both his hands and pressed her forehead to his. Wishing to know everything she knew and experience everything she'd ever experienced, Eddie was a little more prepared when he was sucked into a dark void and spat into a pocket of flashes and memories and people and things he'd never witnessed.

Curious, he reached up to the flat piece of colorful lights dancing above him and the moment he touched it, he was sitting at the back of a classroom, among children who looked to be about seven or eight years old. The room was painted with light blue paint and the ceiling had cartoon houses, big textbooks and food painted on it. There was one fan at the center of the room, but it wasn't blowing any breeze in Eddie's direction. At the front of the class, a man sat behind a desk with a long cane in his hand.

"Who's turn is it today?" the man asked.

"SARA!" the whole class called in unison.

Eddie's hands moved without his permission. As he looked down, the hands were dainty, small, dark-skinned arms. They picked up the book on his desk. Eddie walked up to the front of the class as the teacher nodded and twirled his fingers for her to turn and face the class.

"Alright, Sara," he said. "Let's hear it."

Eddie's hands – Sara's hands were wet with sweat as she opened the notebook to reveal a short poem.

"Don't be afraid," the teacher said. "Just read what you have."

"I..." she cleared her throat. "I want to dance like bubbles, I want to eat fried meat, I want to stay awake at night, And sleep under the stars."

She let her hands drop as the teacher began a round of applause.

"Good job, Sara. We need to work on aligning your train of thought, but I'm impressed. It's so much better than last week."

As she soaked in the applause, the floating colors appeared above her head again.

Eddie touched it and this time; he was sitting in a large circle. He was sitting on a tiny, plastic stool with a plate of food in his hand and a cup of water in front of him. Around him, there were grownups and other children in the circle, eating and drinking and laughing beneath the night's sky.

As the grownups spoke, the boy next to Eddie, his older brother- Sara's older brother, made a "shushing" gesture before slipping a chicken wing from a black waterproof into Sara's plate. She smiled, dropped the plate and turned from the circle to devour her new treat with glee.

Eddie touched another floating light.

A woman screamed at the front of the bus as an argument broke out.

"Please, my wife is sick," a passenger said as he held his wife's hand while one of the armed robbers dragged the woman.

"See this guy, oh," the armed robber said. He let go of the wife and slapped the husband. When he dragged the husband out and other passengers stood up, the other armed robbers pointed their guns at them, causing the men who'd stood up in the bus to slowly sit back down.

Sara rubbed her forehead.

They should have taken their stolen money and gone. Plus, she hated that she'd have to do this in a dress that had no hand and barely any support around the waist. She knotted the bulk of it on the side to keep it from bouncing around and resigned herself to the fact that every man in the area was about to get a healthy peep show.

Pushing open her window, she sat on the pane, grabbed the top of the bus and pulled her whole body out till she was squatting on the pane. When she was balanced, she jumped down and landed on the grass in a thump as the knot at her side gave way and the whole dress came loose again.

As she kicked off her shoes and bent to pick them up, two of the armed robbers looked at her.

"Wetin you dey do. Go back inside before you woundjure."

One of them was too busy, beating an innocent man to a pulp. The other three hadn't moved their guns from their previous targets. They still saw the big, tall men in the bus as more of a threat. The one closest to her was the biggest. Lucky Sara. He'd provide more cover than any of the small stooges he'd shown up with.

She ran to him and when he turned his gun to her, she slid on the muddy ground, hobbled him with her shoes as she stabbed him in the back with the other heel. It wasn't sharp enough, and he was too thick to get through. She dropped her shoes and punched him at the back of the head as his whole weight rested on her. She got his gun when it fell. A thin, rusty AK47 that was more harmful to the person firing than the victim. Bracing herself against the floor, she fired at the armed robber standing at the door of the bus before she shot the one beating up the husband. She rolled away as the big man fell on his back and groaned in pain. As the last armed robber in the bus came running, Sara shot him in the head before his foot touched the ground.

Eddie inhaled as he fell away from the mbono, Sara. His head rushed as it flooded with her memories. He pressed his temple, praying it would keep his brain from splitting as it adjusted. Seconds later, everything began to settle and fit into place in his mind. Memories merged and actions blended into one another and soon, Eddie was able to sit up. Sara was flat, on the ground.

"Please don't die," he prayed, crawling to her as he put two fingers to her throat. She was alive. Her pulse was normal. She was going to be fine.

Wait. How had he known that? He'd never known what normal was or how to check a pulse. He looked down at the woman. Was this it? He'd met her mind and now... wow.

He got up and tip-toed to the door, once again as something trickled down the side of his head. He touched the side of his neck and traced the fluid up to his ear. When he looked at his fingers, they were covered in blood.

He was bleeding again. The last time this happened, he'd just unwittingly messed with Mma Ubon's mind. "Be careful of your anointing, Edidiong," Uduak had said, just after he pushed the mbono away.

Dusting his leg and sneaking out, Eddie decided to take that warning seriously.