Chapter Eighteen
As we rode the elevator, I wondered why Hailey lied about the lip-reading experts’ discovery.
What could she be hiding? Until I had it figured out, I needed to stay close.
But the moment we stepped out of the building, we were hit with noise and music; I temporarily forgot about what went on downstairs and took in the scenery.
Seeing college events on TV was different than real life.
Hell, high school couldn’t touch the amount of people spending a summer night partying on the campus.
I followed Hailey, checking out the scene.
All the people laughing and enjoying themselves, spread across the lawn, reminding me of the Isle when the Kinfolk would dance to the drums and our chants, celebrating Nyame’s golden stool and the gods who protected us and spirits who helped us take care of our land.
This was a different kind of celebration.
A moment ago, Hailey had been edgy after her heated conversation with her uncle.
But walking out onto campus and toward the quad, away from the heavy responsibilities and toward freeness, she began bobbing to the beat of the music blaring from huge speakers.
“This looks like our celebrations on Golden Isle,” I said.
“Mainlanders—that’s what you call us right? We like to let loose sometimes too.” Hailey inclined her head. “You could join them…”
I didn’t reply, instead popping in my earbuds to dial down the noise as I took in the crowd, thinking this wasn’t so bad.
The last party I’d attended felt a hundred years ago instead of only weeks.
So much had happened. Too much. Ours hadn’t been nearly as big as this one, just a handful of us on our boats and catamarans, celebrating finally being freed from high school.
I thought of all that waited for me back at the Isle—so many responsibilities and surely more failure, and always the pressure to put on a brave and happy face.
There, I was always on. Here, I didn’t have to be.
The thought was freeing. Each moment here, I began to understand more and more why Naira had wanted to experience life beyond the Isle.
Maybe one day, I could be like these students, dancing as if they didn’t have the weight of responsibility on their shoulders.
In the meantime, I had to remain focused as my time here counted down. I would leave with way more questions than I arrived with. Questions only Nana Ama could answer.
“Well?” Hailey asked, swaying in time to the music like she was trying to suck me in. “All work and no play … ever heard that before?”
It was tempting. I yearned to toss everything aside and go out there with her, to feel unrestrained even if only for a few moments.
But then I started thinking about Naira.
I’d run from home for something specific and this wasn’t it.
Wherever they were with that lady from the photo, they weren’t partying.
“It’s not my thing,” I said over the noise.
Hailey pouted. It was cute. A little too cute. Focus, Ada. You came here on a mission. Stick to it.
“You sure?” Hailey asked, still swaying. This time her fingers motioned me to join her.
I smiled. “We need to figure out our next step.”
Hailey groaned before following me to the parking lot where her red death trap awaited us.
Hailey and I moved away from the dense heat of the college crowd, the cooler air reenergizing me.
I sensed movement around us, not a bunch of college kids heading to the quad, but something familiar and not in a good way.
It was the same feeling I’d had when I was sitting in front of the alley outside her home.
Only moments ago, I swear there were people in the lot with us, which was suddenly deserted except us and a growing buzz like a swarm of locusts in a wheat field, signaling that something, or some things, much worse than that were coming.