For the next few months, Dzidzor made herself scarce. She went to the gym, class, the library and then to her room. She started to earn money by running academic errands for her mates. She did homework and assignments, summarized books and taught spells and incantations to students that needed to learn them but couldn’t. She found that she learnt more this way than she ever did at class and with Nkosi. When she wasn’t doing all this, she would hike to the mountain ranges, that surrounded the school like a basin and in the stillness, she learnt the way Lisa taught her to.

Nkosi became very worried about her, so worried that he often sent students to look for her but she evaded them. Although it made her feel guilty, a god, a creator god, the one whose body was the literal ground she was standing on told her that she should not tell him. She had no choice but to obey. However, she left him letters every time she could to update him on her daily life and that she was going to class and so he should not worry. He would reply, pleading with her to meet with him but she would always refuse.

During the next testing, she was promoted to Level 5. Flabbergasted, she went to Nkosi for advice.

“So, you finally came”

Nkosi looked awful. His usually tidy locs were frizzy and unusually white. Accompanied with the extra wrinkles on his face and dark circles beneath his eyes, they made him look like he had aged about 20 years in a few months.

“Are you sick?” Nkosi shook his head and lay back on the sofa in his office, closing his eyes. “Are you sure, you look very sick?”

“I am not sick” Even his voice sounded frail. Dzidzor sat in front of the sofa, her back facing him and her legs crossed in front of her. “You cut your hair”

“Yes, it was becoming hard to manage. And the braids are too expensive and painful. Why, is it not nice?”

“Oh, it’s very nice. What do you people call his hairstyle nowadays?”

“I don’t know. I just told the barber to cut my hair. But I know the line they draw in the hair is called ‘aboye’” They laughed for a bit and then fell silent, the things left unsaid brimming between them.

“You have been doing some intensive learning” Dzidzor kept silent “Or how will you be in Level 5?”

“Maybe Lisa put me there…” but even as she said it, she knew it was a blatant lie.

“You are promoted based on your spiritual growth, not whether a god or man wants you to be. You have to tell me what you’ve been learning”

“You know I can’t”

“You will die” Dzidzor turned to face him, this time he was looking at her with watery sad eyes.

“You keep on saying that but ever explain” It was Nkosi’s turn to keep silent. “Stop asking Lisa to choose you instead of me”

“He told you”

“He told me” Dzidzor repeated “Please stop, he will not choose you” Nkosi grunted and then keep silent for a moment.

“You know of Akomfo Anokye, Yaa Asantewaa, Togbe Tsali, Asaebu Amenfi and the like?”

“I only know of Togbe Tsali” Nkosi nodded.

“It is your assignment read on them” In a flash, Dzidzor felt a heaviness at the back of her head for a second and she realized she knew of them.

“Akomfo Anokye, summoner of the stool of the Ashantsi’s, Yaa Asantewaa, warrior queen and Asaebu Amenfi, warrior king” Nkosi stared at her open mouthed “They were all Vodun?”

After Nkosi got over his shock, he said “How could they not be?” When Dzidzor thought on it, she laughed as to how she had any doubt in her mind that they were Vodun. “Lisa has begun to unlock your brain very quickly than I thought he would. Look hard and answer this for me. What is common among them?”

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She was about to talk about how great they were and how they led people but she felt the pressure again and another idea came to mind. “They initiated great change”

“Exactly. Now, how many of them died peacefully?” Dzidzor’s head began to pound in sync with her heart in fearful admonition.

“What are you driving at?”

“They were not just Vodun, they were initiates.”

As the meaning of the words Nkosi was telling became apparent she suddenly felt cold. She was chosen to initiate great change which meant that there was no way she would have anything like a happy normal life. Her whole entire life had to be dedicated to the cause to which she had been chosen and there was no way out as she had just said yes to Lisa without asking him what he wanted from her. She had thought of this but with the way Lisa showed so much faith in her, she thought she could do it, she knew she could but now…

“You have suffered enough. Enough to make old men give up. I want to help you get a better life than this. I wish I could. But it seems you are in so deep already and Lisa has warned you off me” He closed his eyes, looking like he would die any moment. “Leave me for a while Dzidzor”

“But Nkosi…”

“Do as I say” he smiled at her reassuringly. A fat tear dropped from her eye “I am not dying” She was very sure that he was and she was not ready to lose another loved one. “I am just resting”

“Promise me”

“Most people in their old age wish that they had given birth in their age. Apart from me of course. I find children exhausting and yet here I am a father figure to thousands of them”

“Promise me” Nkosi’s attempt at humor did not faze her. He sighed and then said,

“I promise”

As she left Nkosi’s office, his words weighing on her into depression like a stone tied about a witch’s waist who was thrown into the ocean. She saw two giggling girls walk by her, their waists swaying in humorous sync, teasing the boys and the men who saw them. They reminded her of someone who had been closer than a sister.

She had not walked that path in close to a year but she traversed it like it were the route to her own home. She knocked on it and an unfamiliar person opened the door. Dzidzor asked for Esi, but she did not live there anymore. She felt a pang of guilt, realizing that she should have done this sooner. Luckily, the other person in the room knew what she was looking for and Dzidzor took it with thanks.

“Are you not that girl who has been promoted to level 5 after two years of being here?” The other girl suddenly got interested in Dzidzor, looking her up and down to see if she were the real deal. Dzidzor however just smiled and left. In her defense, she felt that she owed explanation to only one person today.

The next time she knocked, it was on the right door. Loud Afrobeat music was coming from within the room and it took a while for the person inside to hear. When she did hear, she got irritated, cussing her in Twi, her language of choice. Dzidzor prepared herself for a fight when the door did open.

Esi wore a loose black sleeveless shirt and pajama bottoms. Her usually immaculate hair was matted and frizzy, sticking in all directions at once. She looked crossed and smelled a bit like smoke.

“Do you need help with that spell?”

“If it was not for God,” Esi warned in Twi “I would have killed you with my bare hands”

“I just came to say hi”

“After how long?” Esi sucked her teeth “I really don’t have time for this” She turned to close the door but Dzidzor stopped her.

“I came to apologize”

Esi looked with malice as Dzidzor held her arm.

“The thing that time has passed in it no”

“Hear me out” Esi wrenched her arms from Dzidzor’s hands before agreeing to listen to Dzidzor. “I was wrong, about everything and you were right. The dead do not just move on, ancestors don’t just advice and I now see why books are restricted even though we are all learning Vodun”

“Is that it?” Esi said after a while.

“What do I have to do to make it up to you?”

“Fall down on this ground and die” Her words cut deep.

“Esi…”

“No, no don’t Esi me. I thought we were sisters, in fact more than that and then you say that to me. Then you proceed to not mind me for a year and now you what? Come to my doorstep so that I do what for you?”

Deep down, Dzidzor knew she should’ve expected this, but she did not know it would be this difficult.

“You come here, looking like some man, with muscles and short hair. You and yourself, just like that. No explanation, unless you have an explanation”

At that moment, Dzidzor felt so bruised that she did not see the need to explain anything to her. Her reasoning was if she had hurt Esi this way then there was no need patching things up. Esi was better off without her. Dzidzor turned to leave when she heard footsteps nearing the door.

Curious, Dzidzor turned back as the quarters Esi lived in was a single apartment.

Peeping around the door was a naked girl, shorter than the two of them with light, smooth skin. Dzidzor looked to Esi, but she looked away, urging the girl in.

The shut of the door rang like a bell in her chest.

Shock was her initial emotion but what Dzidzor did not expect to feel was her chest falling with immense sadness.