Where Women are Kings

by Christie Watson

  ‘I’ll have two plain honey ones,’ said Jasmin. ‘Salmon is good for brain development and, if I am going to be a marine biologist, I need a good brain.’ She reached across the table and pulled Elijah’s fish on to her plate. ‘And I like your honey salmon. It’s much better than Mum’s fish fingers.’

  ‘Hey!’ said Chanel. ‘That’s Captain Birdseye you’re offending.’

  ‘Good job you made extra, then,’ said Obi, winking at Nikki.

  ‘What’s a marine biologist?’ Elijah was already digging into his dinner, piling couscous on to his plate next to the fish.

  ‘Marine biologist!’ Chanel laughed. ‘You won’t even do your homework now, so how will you study something like that?’ She was sitting next to Jasmin, but moved away as Jasmin tried to elbow her. ‘Hey! You know that’s true. You’re always trying to get out of your homework.’

  ‘I am not,’ said Jasmin. She was wearing a T-shirt that said Pop Star in pink glitter. ‘Mrs Pullen says I’ve got the best brain in class and, if I applied myself, I could do anything.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Chanel. ‘So apply yourself. That means do your homework without complaining. I bet Jay-Z will work super hard at his new school, won’t you, little man?’

  Nikki tutted at Chanel. ‘Stop calling him that.’

  ‘I don’t mind,’ said Elijah.

  He’s kind to everyone, even Chanel, thought Nikki.

  ‘Anyway, I do apply myself.’ Jasmin turned to Elijah. ‘A marine biologist is someone who swims with dolphins,’ she said. ‘Like a human mermaid.’

  Daddy rolled his eyes and snorted. ‘In Nigeria, when I was growing up, there were only three professions: medicine, law and engineering. The kids were given a book and slapped around the head for playing too much football. Now they’re slapped around the head for reading books and given a football instead.’ He began to laugh. ‘How times have changed!’

  ‘What do you want to be when you’re older?’ asked Obi, looking at Elijah. ‘Do you have a grand plan, like Jasmin?’

  Elijah looked around the table at everyone’s faces.

  ‘You don’t have to decide now,’ Nikki said. ‘You have years and years and years at school.’

  Elijah laughed. ‘I already know what I want to be,’ he said.

  ‘A marine biologist with me?’ Jasmin asked. ‘Then we could both live in California, because that’s the best place to do it. There are millions of dolphins there and Hollywood movie stars who live in mansions.’

  Elijah shook his head again but he was smiling. Nikki could tell that he liked Jasmin. His face lit up when she was around. He looked at Nikki. ‘I want to work with you,’ he said. ‘I want to be an animal helper at Battersea Dogs’ Home.’

  FOURTEEN

  Elijah hadn’t liked any of the schools he’d been to, but some were worse than others. Horton School was bigger than Appletree School, and it had more grass than St John’s School, more buildings than Grove Field and St Anne’s, and more cars parked outside than Lowry Park School, but fewer flowers outside than St Peter’s and definitely bigger children than Kennedy Court Primary School. The worst turned out to be St Peter’s, where Elijah learnt that flowers outside the gate did not mean kind hearts inside the teachers.

  ‘Come on, slow coach,’ Jasmin pulled him by the mittens that Nikki had sewn on to his coat sleeves. Just in case they get lost, she’d said, or your hands get cold. Jasmin had rolled her eyes back into her head. ‘It’s only September. It’s not even winter yet.’ She snorted but Elijah didn’t mind. He liked having warm hands.

  He looked behind him at Nikki and Aunty Chanel, who were talking and laughing. Nikki was wearing a thin coat like his and had a patterned scarf wrapped around her neck. Aunty Chanel was wearing leopard-print trousers and a bright pink vest underneath a leather jacket, and had high heels that tapped on the pavement. He wished he wasn’t walking to school. He wished he was going to the park and the river, which was where Nikki took him sometimes, to sit on a bench and look at the water.

  ‘That’s OK,’ said Nikki when she noticed him looking. ‘You can go ahead a bit with Jasmin. Mrs Pullen will be waiting at the gate, anyway. But come here first.’

  Elijah pulled his mittens away from Jasmin’s grasp. He stood in front of Nikki.

  ‘Now, remember everything I told you? This is a first day, that’s all. If it is too hard then tell the teacher and she’ll phone me and I’ll get you straight away. Just tell Mrs Pullen.’ Nikki kissed him on the cheek. She smelt of mint. Nikki took a small piece of paper out from her back pocket and showed Elijah. It was a picture she’d drawn of a prince wearing a crown and there was a heart and two kisses. ‘Keep this in your pocket and you can think of me,’ she said. Obi had already given him another note with the words carpe diem written on it. He said it meant ‘seize the day’ but, even in English, it didn’t really make sense because Obi told him that ‘seize’ meant hold really suddenly and tightly, and you couldn’t hold a day. If you could hold a day, Elijah would have held the day when he last saw Mama’s face. But he didn’t tell Obi that.

  ‘I’ll be OK,’ he murmured. He knew Nikki was worried about him; he’d heard her talking to Ricardo on the telephone the night before: too soon, not ready, it might trigger a relapse in behaviour. But, although he heard Nikki’s words in his ear: ‘Don’t worry about school too much – it’s not important’, Elijah heard Mama’s words in his heart: My little son, when you are well, you will be lucky going to school. School is like a ticket to any place you want to go and, if you work really hard, you will be able to travel in first class.

  But, although Elijah carried Mama’s words, no matter how much he tried, he didn’t like school. The work was too hard for his eyes and the wizard made everything blur so he wouldn’t see and laughed in his ear so that he wouldn’t hear the teachers. The teachers would put on cross faces and, if Elijah wasn’t very careful, the wizard would take over completely. And then the teachers would get really angry, shouting at him for saying bad words or kicking or breaking the window, when Elijah had no idea what they were talking about. That would make them angriest of all. He hadn’t felt the wizard at all for a few days, but he felt sure that it would be back on his first day at his new school. As the days went on and school became closer, the dreams had come every few days. The other night, Elijah had thought the wizard was back, torturing him with bad dreams, and he had screamed and scratched himself to get rid of it, but in the end it was just a bad dream. As Nikki slept next to him, he had searched and searched in himself for any sign of the wizard and it was not there. But the wizard always came back. Elijah looked up at the sun. He felt cold.

  He leant towards Nikki and hugged her quickly, taking the note and putting it into his pocket. ‘Don’t come to the gate,’ he said. Even though he thought Nikki was a special and kind person, he didn’t want Nikki standing beside him in case the other children saw her and then they would know he didn’t live with his real mum. If only Obi had been able to join them. But then he saw Nikki’s puzzled face and he felt bad. She had held him so close the other night. Closer than Ricardo. As close as Mama. He ran back and gave her another quick hug.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ he said, and she smiled and looked up at Aunty Chanel, who held her hand over her heart and said, ‘Ahhh.’

  They walked towards the gate and Jasmin began speaking quickly. ‘I wanted to talk to you the other night but I couldn’t because Mum and everyone was there. I have to tell you about the spy code for the torches. The other day you did something totally embarrassing.’

  Elijah looked back at Nikki and Aunty Chanel, who were talking and walking slowly behind them. ‘Is it a code? The way you flash the torches?’

  ‘Of course it’s a code. And, if you want to message me, it’s very important. Three flashes and then one quick flash means I’ll knock for you in the morning to walk to school, three quick flashes means I’ll come over to play, and four flashes means you come over to mine to play. But you did five slow flashes!
’

  ‘What does it mean?’ Elijah touched the note Nikki had put into his pocket. The paper felt very smooth on his fingertips, like the skin on Mama’s cheek.

  ‘Five slow flashes must never be used! The only time I would use five slow flashes is if Justin Bieber moved in, and you don’t look anything like Justin Bieber and, anyway, we’re cousins, which is like brother and sister, anyway, so five slow flashes is gross.’

  He had no idea what Jasmin was talking about but he liked her saying they were like brother and sister. He’d never had a cousin or friend or brother or sister before.

  Jasmin looked towards the school. ‘It’s fine for you to use the code. In fact, we have to use the code because Mum won’t let me have a walkie-talkie, which would be better. But don’t ever, ever use five flashes.’ She leant towards Elijah’s ear. ‘Five slow flashes means, “I love you.”’

  A lady came out of the gate and walked towards them. ‘Good morning, Jasmin,’ she said. ‘How are you?’ They both stopped walking and stood still until Nikki and Aunty Chanel caught up.

  Jasmin smiled. ‘Hello, Mrs Pullen. I had a good summer holiday. I went to America and saw the Statue of Liberty, and I went to the top of the Empire State Building.’

  Elijah giggled and quickly put his hand over his mouth.

  ‘Jasmin,’ said her mum, shaking her head. ‘Stop making up stories.’ She turned to Mrs Pullen. ‘We went to my friend’s caravan in Great Yarmouth for two nights and it pissed down with rain.’

  ‘Chanel!’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Aunty Chanel. ‘I meant to say, “poured”. Poured with rain.’

  Jasmin turned towards her teacher. ‘See what I’m dealing with?’ Then she took Elijah’s hand and flicked her ponytail. ‘You will have to put a pound in the swear jar, Mum. Come on, Elijah. Let’s go.’

  ‘Are you OK, Elijah?’ Nikki looked lost, as if she was on a strange street even though they were only two roads away from their house.

  Elijah nodded. Mrs Pullen picked up his other hand. ‘Come with me; I’m your new teacher,’ she said.

  ‘He’ll be fine, Aunty Nikki. Won’t ya?’ Jasmin smiled at Elijah. He nodded again.

  They walked towards the school and through the big metal gates and Elijah didn’t look backwards once because he knew Nikki would be crying and that might make him cry. Jasmin flicked her ponytail again. ‘In America, you don’t have to go to school,’ she said.

  ‘Jasmin, that’s not entirely true, is it?’ said Mrs Pullen, winking at Elijah. She had bushy red hair and black circles around her eyes.

  ‘Some kids are homeschooled. That means they just watch TV all day. I wish I lived in America so I didn’t have to go to school to sit on my hands when I’m fiddling in class.’

  ‘Then don’t fiddle!’ Mrs Pullen laughed then and Jasmin smiled at her and Elijah realised they must be friends. ‘She can’t keep still, can you, Jasmin?’

  Jasmin rolled her eyes. Elijah had never known a girl like Jasmin. She wasn’t like a boy, but she wasn’t like any other child he’d ever met. Part of him wanted to be her friend, but he was worried about the wizard. The wizard hurt everyone he ever liked. It would be safer for Jasmin if they weren’t friends, but when Jasmin was near he felt a bit better – like she was full of sunshine that filled all Elijah’s darkness. It was impossible not to like her. Even if she said she wouldn’t be friends with him. And Chioma had taught him how to breathe so slowly it stopped time and helped him think and that made the wizard really small. It did mean he didn’t have any special powers – no wizard meant no special powers – but he didn’t mind. He’d give up anything in the world to make the wizard go. If the wizard went, he would be safe and Mama might get better and see how he was a normal boy.

  Inside the playground, Elijah suddenly stopped walking. He stood still for a few minutes because his legs wouldn’t work. Then he walked towards the big door where lots of children were screaming inside. He let go of Mrs Pullen and Jasmin and covered his ears. Children were whizzing past him and he didn’t know any of them. The whole world was filled with children who were not friends. Some of them pushed him and he moved to the side and looked at the wall where there was a big peeling-paint mark.

  Mrs Pullen knelt down in front of him and gently moved his hands from his ears. ‘Come on, let’s get out of this chaos. Let me take you to your classroom. You’ll see – it’s a very friendly class and we do so many fun things.’

  Everything went blurred as if there was a problem with his eyes. Maybe the wizard was making them blurred. He followed Mrs Pullen and Jasmin through the school corridors to a room with a glass door. The children had gone into the class already and everything was quiet inside the classroom. As they walked in, Elijah felt everyone looking at him. He wondered which child would be the first to hit him, or call him a name, or laugh at him. He looked up. Jasmin was there right next to him. She smiled a wide smile.

  ‘OK, Elijah, welcome to class 3F. You can sit next to Jasmin. She insisted! I know better than to argue with Jasmin when she insists!’ Mrs Pullen winked at Jasmin again.

  Elijah sat on a chair at the front; Jasmin sat next to him. As Mrs Pullen read the names out, Jasmin took a pencil from her pencil case and drew a skull with bones around it, like a pirate skull-and-crossbones, on the piece of paper on Elijah’s desk. She began to fiddle with her pencil case, getting everything out then putting everything in again. She was humming loudly.

  Elijah looked at the classroom. It was the same as all the others he’d been in: a big blackboard and a big whiteboard, hundreds of drawings, drawers and drawers of equipment with stickers on the front that he couldn’t read, a large globe on the front desk and lots of children looking at him. In all the places he’d been to, he’d hated school. He’d never had any real friends, not a single one. But suddenly, sitting beside Jasmin, he felt like something important might change. He could breathe easily and the wizard was completely silent. He sat up straighter and nobody laughed at him. Not even the wizard. For the first time, Elijah had a friend. Even better than a friend. A cousin. He knew it was dangerous to make friends with people, that the wizard could hurt anyone. But, sitting next to Jasmin, he realised that the wizard never woke up when she was near. If it did start to wake up, Elijah could control it how Chioma taught him. It was like being near Jasmin made him stronger. Jasmin wasn’t scared of anything. Not even a wizard. Elijah decided to risk it. He looked straight up at Jasmin’s face and smiled. But Jasmin was too busy sharpening all her pencils one by one to notice.

  Mrs Pullen sighed. ‘Jasmin,’ she said. ‘Sit on your hands, please.’

  FIFTEEN

  Nikki asked if October was a bit late in the year for a barbecue, but Obi told her she was being ridiculous. ‘It must be twenty degrees. We’ll put gloves on, if necessary. I’ve got the best marinade recipe for chicken and I can’t wait until spring to try it.’

  Nikki laughed. ‘Obi is always barbecuing,’ said Nikki. ‘It’s the only time he cooks. Like a king, only he’s allowed near the barbecue. He says I’m messy, but wait until you see him barbecuing. That’s when we can really understand mess!’

  Elijah had never had a barbecue but he didn’t tell Nikki that. Once, Mama had fried plantain on the balcony, but she liked it blackened, which was when it was the sweetest, she’d said. She’d forgotten to take it off the fire that she’d made from wrapping-paper and an old chair. And the armchair on the balcony had caught fire somehow and she’d had to throw the burning chair over the edge of the balcony. She’d burnt her hands and cried with pain.

  Later that day, Nikki took Elijah with her to Aunty Chanel’s flat so that Obi could get the barbecue ready. The flat was covered in large posters that were Blu-tacked to the wall, of pop stars wearing not very much clothing. Jasmin rolled her eyes when she saw Elijah looking at them. ‘It’s Mum,’ she said. ‘So embarrassing.’ She looked around the room and leant closer to Elijah. ‘She’s actually going to audition for X-Factor but you won’t know what that
is because you don’t have a TV. It’s a singing competition but like the coolest show on earth.’

  Elijah tried to imagine Aunty Chanel on the stage, singing. He giggled.

  ‘It’s not funny,’ whispered Jasmin. ‘Don’t tell anyone at school.’

  ‘I won’t,’ he said. He could hear Aunty Chanel in the shower, singing loudly. ‘Maybe she’ll win.’

  Jasmin huffed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. She’s too strange.’ She took Elijah’s hand and they went into her bedroom. It was funny being inside the room that he’d often looked at from across the road. He liked the way her curtains were always open and the horses on her duvet cover. She had a globe on her desk and a giant map on her wall, covered in tiny sticking-out pins. ‘These are all the places that I will visit when I’m older,’ she said. ‘I want to see the whole world.’ She ran her fingers over the map and read out the names: ‘Peru, Brazil, Australia, Russia, Mongolia, Sudan, Alaska—’