He whispered back, “What what?”
“Tani, you missed your lecture. You never miss a lecture. So something’s going on with you. I can see it.” She touched his cheek. “And I can feel it. You’ve gone all tight in the face. Have you gone at it with your dad again?”
He moved back so he could see her properly and speak to her the same way. Still, he glanced away from her when he said, “It’s mostly Simisola.”
Her expression altered. “Your sister? What’s wrong?”
Tani said, “You got time enough to go outside?” and she agreed, scooping up her rucksack and leaving the rest of her things behind in order to follow him. He used this time of leaving the library to seek a way to explain, and he wondered whether he could possibly tell her what he suspected was going on without completely betraying his parents. He couldn’t find it. It felt like walking into the middle of an inadequately frozen pond. He settled on not looking at Sophie as he said, “Few nights ago? She showed me all this rubbish, did Simi. Shit Mum bought her. Up Ridley Road Market? Clothes and jewellery and makeup, this was.”
“Really? Jewellery? Makeup? Your sister? That’s odd, isn’t it? For her age, I mean. And from what you’ve told me about her, it doesn’t sound like your mum. I got the impression she’s sort of traditional.”
“Yeah. But this is . . .” He paused, thought about it, switched gears just a bit. “See, Simi thinks it’s all for a celebration. The celebration, she says. Which follows the initiation.”
Sophie frowned. “What’s she being initiated into?”
“Into being Yoruba,” he said. “Mum’s told her she has to be initiated cos she was born here, not in Nigeria.”
“Is that how it is? I mean, do people get initiated if they’re born here and their family is Nigerian?”
“？’Course not. It’s all rubbish, tha’。 I tried to explain, but Simi wasn’t having it. All’s she’s thinking is that there’ll be a cake and people will be giving her money an’ she’s got this shit she c’n wear from Ridley Road Market an’ she gets to paint up her face. I tried to talk to Mum ’bout it, but she said Simi misunderstood what she told her cos the only thing happened was that they went to a place where she got inspected by a doctor or a nurse or whatever. Mum told her it was to make sure all her parts were intact.”
Sophie looked away from him as she considered this. Her gaze was on the fountain in the middle of the courtyard where they sat on top of a retaining wall. She said at last, “Is this, like, a regular thing that happens to Nigerian girls? Getting their parts inspected is what I mean.”
“Sure as hell, I don’t know. They’re meant to have lots of babies, they are, so I c’n see how the first question to answer is can they have babies.”
“But she’s only eight years old, right?”
“What I thought ’s well. An’ here’s something else. I heard Mum and Pa arguing las’ night. I think it’s to do with Simi. Mum was saying she’s trying to protect her.”
Sophie raised her fingers to her lips, and she gazed at him as if to read his face. She said, “From what?”
Tani was reluctant because of what it would reveal about his family, but he went on. He found that he needed to talk to her. “From letting Pa get a bride price for her.”
Sophie said, “A bride price? Is your dad planning to sell her? That’s so totally against the law. You might have to phone the police, Tani, if that’s what he intends to do.”
“There’s no point. They’ll just deny it. Or at least Pa will.”
“Then you have to be ready to get her out of there the instant you hear or overhear any plan to get money from someone willing to pay for her. If your mum’s been buying her clothes and all that rubbish, like she’s going to be presented to someone, that means whatever is being planned is going to happen soon.”
“So where do I take her if I get her out? Like I said, there’s no point to going to the police and where the hell else is there?”
She looked from him to the building across the courtyard. He followed her gaze. Someone was busily opening windows, hoping for the best, which would be the sudden manifestation of a stiff and cooling breeze. Sophie was silent, and in her silence birds twittered as they dipped and fluttered in and out of the nearby fountain, where water burbled pleasantly. Everything was going on as normal, except in his life and Simi’s. Sophie finally replied with, “If there’s really no point to ringing the police, when the time comes, you can bring her to me.”