Diallo is poor but gifted with the ability to tell great lies. After a bad afternoon with his friend Paul in which he nearly ends up in jail, the pair rely on fate to change their lives.
"Let's play it with a coin!" He says. "Flip a coin. Face: our...
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The sky is blue when I step into Henry's cab. It was so nice of him to drive me to Paul's house. On our way there, we talk a lot. Somehow I can see why Mom loves him. Henry is hilarious, always optimistic, and has some of the strangest intuitions.
"Diallo, son, my wife Honora and my daughter Ludivine, well, they are both dead," he says while looking at me through his rearview mirror and then to the road. After this, he pauses, one tear running down his left eye. He wipes it off and continues, "We were the perfect little family, but the almighty man above, he thought differently, and he took them. He took them from me in the most violent way. They both died in a car crash, and only I survived; he saved me but not them. It took me years before I could drive a car again, and then I met the smile of your mom. The smile of Evelyn saves my soul, and that's why I too love your story, even if I understand nothing about fantasy."
"Mom lets you read my book!" I repeat. My head jerks back, my eyes widen, but then I take it as a compliment. She must be proud of it to show it to others.
"Don't get the wrong idea, son, she loves it!" He grins, showing me his row of perfect fake teeth. Henry, with his gray hair, brown mocha skin, and yellow shirt, is indeed mom's perfect match. I giggle on that thought, then he stops his car in front of a huge gate. "Here we are, that's the address, son!" He turns his head back and looks at me. "If you have any problems, call me; I'll be waiting for you here!"
"Thanks but I'll be fine, Henry!"
I'm about to leave his car when his hand grips my arm. "Son, Diallo, I don't have good feelings about this place, so I'll wait for you here." His eyebrows furrow, and his hand tightens on my limb, then he adds, "The last thing I want—and God forbid that thought be in my mind—is for Evelyn to go through what I lived. She loves you, son; you're everything to her! So I'll wait for you!"
"Thank you, Henry!" I reply with a pat on his shoulder. "You're a good man." He lets go of me while I rearrange my clothes and get out of his car. I can see Henry from afar in his tiny cab, waving at me and switching off his engine.
A crow shrieks above my head. Since when has the sky painted itself in this sudden, eerie gray? Nevertheless, I walk closer to the property. Those black gates are nothing but dreadful. They stand as tall, empty columns, the double of my height, with wrought iron curls in the hair of a demon straight out of Hell. A hideous creature turns guardian of this house with the limbs of upside-down flames. Then sitting at its feet is a row of what seem to be rectangular cages after another, each with their own two human hands still holding on to the sealed exit of their cages.
For heaven's sake, what am I getting myself into?
I take one more step closer to the intercom and press the button on it.
