Dzidzor had packed in expectation of school. It wasn’t much, just one small briefcase and a backpack with her shoes and other utilities, but she didn’t have this before she came here. She muttered a small thank you as she looked at her small wealth. She sat inside the hunter’s apartment, well furnished with the latest furniture and gadgets with the exception of a television set and personal computers. She always wondered why the hunter would put an illusion spell on his own house, because from the outside, it looked like some dilapidated hut while from the inside it was huge and had the feel of a modern castle.

The hunter came from his room, wearing a well-worn batakari, trousers and black sandals. He his hair, which he kept in a small well combed afro, was well groomed and when he saw her, he smiled his usual winning smile. Normally, she would’ve looked away to hide what his smiles did to her but today she kept looking at him, because her anger at him overshadowed her feelings. He sat beside her on the big leather couch that faced a window through which you could see the garden. He asked her how she was, she curtly told him she was fine, still looking outside.

“You can’t still be angry with me” the hunter asked in Èʋegbe. His voice sounded a bit hurt, but she was hurt too. She didn’t reply. He sighed; the sort of sigh that seemed to never seemed to end long after it was done. He remained by her, his knee touching hers.

A car pulled up in the compound; it was a black sedan. The hunter got up to go outside to meet the visitor. She could see everything from the window. Two people got out of the car; the driver was a man who was tall, a head taller than the hunter and had a perpetual frown on his face. If you looked closely at his face, you could see the tribal marks on his face were six in number, three on each cheek that meant that he was from a warrior family. The other passenger was a woman. She wore a wig that was shoulder length and had some curls at the bottom. She wore clothes that Dzidzor only saw in movies; a floral dress and a belt buckle with the highest heels she ever saw. When the hunter gave her a kiss on the cheek, she wanted to go out and hit her with everything she had. The older woman seemed happy about the kiss. Dzidzor muttered a word that she was sure would make the hunter very displeased.

They both got into the house laughing and smiling, except the driver of course. This woman was wearing makeup and the red-hot lipstick brought everyone’s attention to her lips. The driver sat a chair adjacent her, the woman sat on the sofa opposite her and the hunter resumed his position beside her. They spoke for a while, speaking in a language she did not know that she would soon find out to be Fante. The woman stared at Dzidzor the entire time, breaking eye contact to answer the hunter and then asking questions of her own. After a while, he put a hand over her knee which filled Dzidzor with glee. The woman looked at the hunter’s hand, then Dzidzor’s face, looking a little uncomfortable. The hunter noticed this and withdrew this hand.

The woman asked Dzidzor a question and she did not answer. The hunter said something and the woman asked her the question again, in English this time

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“Hello, what is your name?” her accent completely changed when she spoke English. She spoke with a British accent that made Dzidzor feel inadequate with her own uncivilized accent.

“Dzidzor”

“Dzidzor what?” Dzidzor had avoided her surname several times and told the hunter so. Maybe this was a trick question, but she knew the answer to that.

“Just Dzidzor. No surname” the woman raised an eye brow but did not comment further.

“Which school did you go to?” Dzidzor looked to the hunter. She had thought the hunter would have told these people these things already. Dzidzor pulled her kente dress over her knees uncomfortably. “Kafui has told us your story already” she said looking at the hunter warmly “but I want to hear it from you”

Kafui.

That was her hunter’s name. She felt the name on her lips.

Kafui, she liked it. She looked at his face and he gave her a small shrug as if to say “Yes that is my name”.

“I didn’t go to school”

“Tell me a bit about your family”

Her entire body screamed no then her voice did. The hunter was saying something to the woman in fante again, she was getting fed up of them. What was happening? The hunter, Kafui, told her that everything had already been done so why was this woman insistent on asking questions, especially sensitive questions like these?

“I’m getting extremely tired of this, hunter!” the woman looked confused, looking from the hunter, Kafui, to Dzidzor because she had spoken in Èʋegbe and the woman didn’t understand Èʋegbe. She leaned over to the hunter about to speak Fante again when Dzidzor blurted in English, “Can we stop this, please? I don’t like this back and forth in a language I don’t understand”

The woman looked taken aback and very annoyed, she wasn’t used to being spoken back to. She tucked her weave behind her ear but she didn’t need to, it never went out of place. She looked at the hunter and was equally surprised to find that he was smiling.

“Dzidzor has gone through a lot, Gloria” the hunter said taking Dzidzor’s hand “She just wants to be in an environment that is safe, that she knows exactly what is going on. So please excuse her outburst”

The woman seemed to not want to excuse Dzidzor’s outburst. She looked offended for a while then she rearranged her features and spoke in English throughout and Dzidzor in turn was very polite and decent but the edge never left her voice.

The driver picked her things after what seemed like an interrogation and remained in the car. The woman and the hunter seemed to be having an argument, the woman waving her hands and the hunter putting his face in his hands. The woman abruptly turned her back to the hunter and begun to walk away in a huff. She slammed the car door when she got in. Dzidzor thought the hunter was mad if she was still expected to go with Agatha and the giant and when he walked over to her, she told him so.

“Dzidzor…” the hunter looked tired and looked as if he would explode any minute

“I’m not trying to be difficult. She is! But she’s an adult so it’s okay right?!” the hunter looked at her for a while and then sighed “I am not safe there! I am not and you know it”

“Do you remember all the manners I thought you?” Dzidzor nodded “Practice all of them” Dzidzor thought it was stupid advice but she didn’t say anything.

“Will you come visit me?” Dzidzor asked tears in her eyes.

“Of course, lↄlↄ” the hunter was crying too,

Because he lied.