Chapter Twenty-Two
“This is true, what you’ve just told me?
” Nana Ama asked, looking from me to Hailey and back to me again.
She sat at the small table in Hailey’s guest house, which was a tiny one-room cabin the size of a hotel room with a teeny bathroom included.
It wasn’t meant to be occupied for long stretches of time and was used mostly for emergencies or the rare tourist or two who didn’t mind small spaces.
Hailey and I were sat at the foot of her bed.
Nana Ama sat in the only chair in the room, considering us with an unreadable expression.
“Describe the beings that attacked you again.”
We did, and with each word, Nana looked more and more troubled.
“And the woman,” she said carefully. “You didn’t recognize her?”
“I didn’t except from the blurry screenshot Naira sent.” I wanted to add how she knew my mother’s name, but since Hailey was there, I kept that to myself.
Nana turned to Hailey. “Were you harmed? Scratched? Bitten?”
“I’m okay. Just terrified.” Hailey asked, “What were those things?”
Nana stood up abruptly. “I’ll call Sheriff Lyle.” She paused, looking unsure of her next move for the first time.
I got up too, worried that I’d made a mistake. Maybe we should have waited until after Naira’s Homegoing before laying this on her.
“I need to get my thoughts together,” she said. She walked toward the door, her steps heavy, her mood heavier. Hailey and I looked at each other.
None of this was good.
Nana opened the door, and Elder James and Sekou were right outside, and they looked like they were in the midst of their own heated conversation. Elder James cleared his throat. He peered in the cabin, finding Hailey, regarding her with the same kind of suspicious expression Sekou had on.
It was as if Nana remembered we were still there. That’s how deep in thought she was, and I was dying to know what she was thinking. But I couldn’t. She turned back to us.
“You’re safe on Golden Isle,” she said. She spoke to us, but her mind was somewhere else. “Let’s get through Naira’s Homegoing.”
“But those things,” Hailey said, sounding tense. “What if they come here?”
Nana stepped over the threshold. “Nothing gets on or off the Isle unless the Isle wills it. And if I’m here, they cannot come.”
Hailey’s face crumpled and she made a move to speak, but I grabbed her hand, shaking my head. She snapped her mouth shut. Now was not the time for questions.