Mike’s POV

“What do you mean Mike is not coming?!”

I heard Nikita’s exclaim from another room. Neil finally told her.

Great.

We had been living with Kafui and eating like kings for a blissful week. I had learnt a lot from him when he and my dad were not having loud and hearty conversations over palm wine and about government and their hometowns. I learned that initiates were handpicked by the gods based on their abilities and temperaments to fulfil an important task for them. I guessed that part but what was interesting about this was the initiates did not all have to be Vodun, the gods could ‘make’ people Vodun to fulfil tasks they wanted done. Then I asked him about the criteria the gods chose for selecting initiates.

As an initiate of a divination god, I just had to concentrate enough to know all this. Like the advice most superheroes were given, everything I needed was inside of me. But I wanted to keep busy. I did not want to think about how life would be without Nikki. I would have to go to some awful boarding school like everyone else and be brainwashed into believing some lie like everyone else. I often wondered whether I wanted my BECE grades to be full As, or I should add some Bs to make myself look human.

Why wouldn’t Ifa just let me go with her? Or we could go to a mixed high school. No one cares if they have a subpar reputation, I would be with my sister and that is all that mattered. I wanted to look for a good moment to break the news to her, without her being hysterical, but from the stomping noises I heard, this was going to be anything but not hysterical.

Nikki entered our room first then Neil. He closed the door and then huffed as though he had been running to keep up. I looked at Neil frustrated.

“She asked if you could share a room with her at Wagadu” I keep on looking at him, telling him that answer wasn’t good enough “I can’t lie to her!”

“Yes, you can, a few months ago you were willing to kill her!”

“I am standing right here!” Nikki screamed, unable to keep her voice low. She could not be still, every organ in her body was fighting her strong emotions. The underarms of her shirt, my shirt, was drenched in her sweat. “Why are you not coming to Wagadu?”

“I cannot” I said, trying to be calm so we both could be calm. Neil stood beside the door, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

“Why?”

“Ifa”

“Why?” She repeated, my answer was not good enough for her.

“He said so”

Without missing a beat, my sister asked the same question, “Why?”

I could not tell her that she would never grow if she had me to rely on. I could not tell her that we are extremely powerful together, but we had to be strong individually before we could be strong together and that meant that we had to be apart.

“That’s just what he said”

“He is wrong! There is no way I’m going ANYWHERE without you!” I could not tell her, if I did, she would make everything worse.

Oh God or god, any one of you available help me.

My father opened the door of our room. Nikki did not even turn to look at him, she was busily throwing daggers at me with her eyes.

“Is everything okay?”

When I said yes Neil and she said No.

“Why?”

“Mike is going to Wagadu without me”

“Yes, I know”

She whipped her head at him so fast I wondered why she wasn’t dizzy yet. “Why am I always the last to know things?”

Because, my dear Nikita, you are the last at understanding things without adding a sentimental value to it.

“Excuse me?!”

Did she just read my mind?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I am not reading your mind; you’re saying it out loud”

“His lips did not move”

“Neil, we both know I can’t read his mind. I’m not a…” After looking at me for a while she huffed and turned to leave the room but my dad was blocking the doorway.

“I know you’re upset but…”

“I’m trying not to be. I’m trying to be not to be unreasonable, okay? I just need air”

“Baby…”

“Move!” Then my father’s body, as though having a mind of their own marched my father away from the door. Neil stood in her path, obviously scared shitless but wanting to try anyways.

“Let me just go with you, make sure you’re safe”

“No” Then after realizing we were worried, she added “I won’t go far. I’m just taking out my anger outside.” Neil nodded and then moved out of the way.

My dad’s body brought him unto my bed.

“I did not know my body could do that” my dad said trying to lighten the mood.

“I did not know she could do that” I said.

“Why didn’t you tell her?”

“Now she’s trying not to be angry. Imagine last week, when she wanted to be angry” My dad nodded a knowing smile.

“What do we do?” Neil asked “Someone has to make her understand. If she does it will make things a bit better” Before we could speak, he answered himself “I’ll speak to her, I caused all of this”

“Neil, you did not cause anything. You’ve been nothing but helpful and supportive. I am a coward; I should have told her”

“Yes, you should have” my dad said.

“I’ll talk to her” From the way they watched me leave the room, it was like they thought I was going to die.

My twin sister would not kill me, I hope.

I found her just outside the hut, crying. My heart broke a little, watching her sit with her head between her legs and breathing like she would not breathe anymore. I wished I could help her with the pain.

I sat beside her, and touched her back. She jumped a little when she noticed my presence and made attempts to stop crying.

“Don’t stop, let it all out. When Ifa told me, I was already crying”

When?

I smiled, because she was trying to prevent me from hearing her voice break.

“When mum almost killed you”

When she did not say anything, I began, “I’m not going with you because of whatever is going through your mind. Not because I am smart and don’t need witchcraft school and you are dumb so you need witchcraft school. Everyone needs witchcraft school, well not everyone but you know what I mean” When she did not laugh, I moved on to plan B “We are called the Godhead. Everything powerful comes in twos. The universe created by two, Nana Buruku and Asaase Yaa. The earth created and maintained by twins, Lisa and Mawu. In the spiritual realm, twins are so powerful because they are the like the sides of the coin of power. And we are the special twins. One chosen by Ifa, the other by Mawu. Normally they are both chosen by the same god. Different sides of the same god. But we being chosen by different gods? It never happens. Even for Vodun siblings.” Nikki raised her head and looked at me with teary eyes “They call such people the Godhead. We are the Godhead. This separation is not forever I promise. We just need to learn apart and them come together and fight”

“Fight what?”

“I don’t know. But all I know is something is out there and we are not ready. We are far from ready. We’re like 13, we’ll be 14 next month. How many 14-year-olds have you heard save the day except for some sacrifice? This is not a book or a movie Nikki, this is real. We need training, proper training and we cannot be together while doing it”

“If you need training, why do you have to go to a normal school and not to Wagadu?”

“Ifa trains his initiates individually. He separates them from the rest of the world and trains them the best that he can. With the other gods, you need to be close to other Vodun for this to work”

“I don’t like this” Nikki begun crying again.

“I don’t like this” I cried alongside her. “I’ll miss you so much.” She twisted her body to hug me. I held her tight, like she was about to go away and leave me, which she kind of was.

I heard a sucking air sound and I looked up. Ifa in all his glory stood before me.

“What are you doing here?” I had been trying to reach him for days but I got no answer, now he appears.

“Are you not happy to see me?”

I began to get suspicious. Was that humor I sensed?

“Are you a demon?”

At the mention of demon, Nikki sat up.

“Who are you… Oh Ifa” She could see him? I was proud of her; she was finally believing and her belief unlocked doors that were once closed to her.

“Nikita,” then he nodded to her then turned to me. “It is time for another lesson”

“I will take no lessons from a demon”

“Calm down. This is a surprise. Your tears and sadness have awoken me and I think it is time you know something.”

“Know what?”

“Even though you are not trained, you are still the Godhead, and extremely powerful. Now hold your hands and concentrate”

“On what?”

“You do little of action and more of questions”

“Now this is the Ifa I am used to.” I got up and helped Nikita to stand up too. We faced each other and closed our eyes.

“Now what?”

“Brown is the color of life. People assume it is green, but without brown, where would life come from? Brown is the death that begets life. Brown is the beginning”

“The spiritual realm” Nikki said, her voice still hoarse from crying.

“Close your eyes and concentrate on grass, on the soil that begets grass. Now try to reach the grass, reach it my children”

We our ears started to ring then we heard a sudden pop. Then we heard nothing.

“Mike?” I could hear her, good. I opened my eyes and instead of being greeted with a god of a kind there was no one, just us.

“You can open your eyes now” She did and she almost did a double take.

“I did not know that we could come here on our own”

“Me either”

“What does this mean, I don’t get it” Nikki said, holding fast to my hand and kicking sand. I laughed when it hit me.

“Ifa doesn’t want to make us miss each other as much”

“I still don’t get it” She begun to smile again.

I loved it when she smiled.

“Maybe you are dumb” She laughed this time “Ifa gave us a key to the spiritual realm and back so that even if we are apart, we can always meet here”

Nikki said a simple “oh” and kept on looking at me.

“What?”

“I hate you” she said sniffing and then using my hand to wipe her nose. I flipped her nose with my hand and then she sneezed loudly, displacing a few clay particles which caused me to sneeze too, causing us to laugh at each other.

“I hate you too dumb girl”