Where Women are Kings by Christie Watson Read Free Book Online Page A

a box that she kept underneath the stairs, full of children’s books and a ball, a noisy baby toy and a few cars, but Nargis only pulled that out when Ricardo visited. The rest of the time he watched Darren playing computer games where people exploded and their guts fell out. Elijah felt like playing with Chioma, but he stayed very still instead. He had to remind himself she wasn’t his friend. She was a spy who wanted to find out about the wizard.
    After ages, Chioma stopped playing. She sat back down on her chair and smiled. ‘That was really good fun,’ she said. ‘We’ll do some more playing next week, if you like.’
    Elijah shrugged.
    ‘Maybe next week you could play with me?’
    He shrugged again. He could see Ricardo’s outline against the glass of the window, tall and thin with spiked hair. He imagined Ricardo smiling behind the glass. Elijah suddenlylooked right at Chioma. ‘Can I see my mama?’ he whispered.
    ‘I bet that’s what you want more than anything in the world,’ she said, ‘isn’t it? All children want to be with their mummies. It’s good to feel like that. But it’s very sad when you can’t be with Mama.’
    Elijah nodded. He looked at Chioma very closely. Her eyes looked straight at his. Elijah focused on her bracelet, golden and filled with dark-red jewels. ‘Are you Nigerian?’ he asked.
    ‘I am,’ she said.
    There was knocking on the door and Ricardo walked in. ‘Hey, Elijah. I bet you’ve had great fun getting to know each other.’ He looked at Chioma and raised his eyebrows up and down very quickly.
    ‘Elijah has been watching me play with the castle, which is really great because that’s my favourite toy. Apart from sand. I also love sand.’
    Elijah had never heard of an adult who loved sand. She must be from God. ‘Chioma is Nigerian,’ he whispered.
    Chioma smiled. ‘I am very proud to be Nigerian. Nigeria is the best place on earth,’ she said. ‘In fact, better than earth.’ Chioma’s eyes sparkled. ‘Like heaven.’
    Elijah breathed her words in where they found other words inside him and stuck together like they were glued.
Nigeria is a place like Heaven
.
    *
    Every week, Elijah visited Chioma, and that was the only good thing about living with Nargis. If he could have lived in Chioma’s play room, he would have done, but Chioma always told him after every session that it was time to go home. But Nargis’s house was not home.
    Some of the visits they would play, and sometimes they would draw or paint, and one visit all they did was drinklemonade and see who could do the loudest burp, and Elijah had laughed and laughed and laughed and felt just like a small boy laughing, which was a really good feeling. But then he had to go back to Nargis’s house. Elijah couldn’t wait for that day when he would leave. He hated living with Nargis. Every room in her house screamed when he opened the door. Nobody else could hear it, but Elijah could. It was so hard to breathe at Nargis’ that he wondered if even the air wanted to get away. He looked through the window every night at the patch of sky Mama would be looking at, and found her star. Then he wished and wished for her to come and find him. But she never did. Elijah knew in the bottom of his tummy that he was not going to live with Mama soon. He knew it because she felt so far away and her star wasn’t shining as much as normal.
    Elijah heard Mama’s voice inside him:
Little Nigeria, you are in danger. If we ever get parted, you must find a Nigerian who believes in God and wait there. You will be safe
.
    He also heard Bishop’s voice inside him:
Ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
    He knew Mama wasn’t coming for him at Nargis’ house. Elijah didn’t feel safe at all. Not one little bit.
    ‘Can I see Mama?’ he asked Ricardo. They were outside Nargis’ house in the garden in the cold air. Elijah