“It’s cos I added Lim, I expect.” He told Sophie about Simi’s friend Lim. He added the fact that Lim’s mum, Halimah, was there—with Monifa—when Simi reached Mayville Estate. She had confronted them both—Halimah and Monifa—with tears, accusations, and rising hysteria. And Monifa had managed to use the hysteria as a weapon against her. One hard slap across the face had been enough to quiet her. Halimah had departed quickly, Monifa had soothed Simi with Ribena and loving words that managed to reassure her that wherever she had heard whatever she had heard, it was vicious and false and “Look at me, my dearest Simisola. Would I ever hurt my beloved child?”
“She reckoned I was the one told her about the cut. Di’n’t take much, did it, since I’m mostly who Simi sees. I mean, she knows Masha from the cake decorating shop in the market and a couple other people there, but they got no reason to tell her and they’re not Nigerian anyway. So there was no one else.”
Tani went on to explain what he’d found upon returning home: Monifa was in the process of moving everything of Simi’s from the bedroom she shared with Tani into Monifa’s own bedroom, where she would henceforth sleep. No problem with this since Abeo had taken up residence with Lark. When Tani had demanded to know what was going on, his mother said, “I know what you have planned. But if you try to prevent this, all of us will pay.”
Tani had said in return, “Tha’s it? All of us will pay? Then all of us got to get out. What we got now i’n’t any kind of life and you know it, Mum. And let me tell you straightaway, no one is hurting my sister. She i’n’t being sold for a bride price and she sure as hell i’n’t being cut.”
Now he said to Sophie, “But I don’t know how I’m making that happen cos what I can tell you is that a madness ’s come on both of them, an’ no way do I un’erstand why Mum’s doing like she’s doing.”
“There’s got to be a way to get her onside, Tani.”
“It’s jus’ not a go.”
She was quiet for a moment before she said, “I wish you’d managed to bring Simi here.”
“Same,” he said. And then he added, “I can’t hand her over to Care, Soph. But I got to do something cos the cut’s going to happen if I don’t.”
“Agreed. I thought I’d bought us some time. So let me get back on it,” was her reply.
They rang off. Tani had rung Sophie from his bedroom and now he swung out of bed. He left the room and saw that his mum’s bedroom door was closed. Either Simi was still sleeping or Monifa had managed to lock her in somehow. It would be a psychological locking-her-in, however. There was no real way to secure the bedroom doors. Abeo had seen to that long ago.
He knocked softly on the panels. He said, “You wake, Squeak?” but he heard nothing. His trepidation prompted him to open the door. He saw both his mother and his sister still in bed. Monifa was awake. Simi was not.
His mother got up swiftly and silently. She put on a thin dressing gown. She motioned him away from the door and then followed him to the sitting room. There, she stood with arms crossed.
“I will slap you till you’re black an’ blue,” she said tersely. “You bother Simisola again.”
“Slap me like you slapped her, Mum? I told her the truth. You wan’ to hear it?” She made no reply, so he went on. “Pa found a cutter. She was here, right in the flat. He di’n’t know I was home, so they made their plans an’ I heard ’em and the only thing makes this diff’rent from cutting Simi in Nigeria is that this pa’ticular cutter might actually know what a scalpel is. Or, at least, she might have a package of razor blades ’stead of just one she uses over an’ over an’ cleans with a rag in between. You followin’ this, Mum?”
Monifa said nothing. Her eyes narrowed.
He went on. “She told Pa she’d bring aunties to hold her down. Pa said fine, jus’ fine, fine, fine. So I went off an’ I found Simi and yeah, Mum, I told her. Everything. Cos no way can I get her to leave if she thinks there’s supposed to be some fucking initiation and celebration, eh? No way will she cooperate with me. But I need her to cooperate, see. Jus’ like I need you to cooperate, but we both know—you and me—tha’s not about to happen when it comes to cutting her. You want her cut ’s well, innit. It’s only that you want it your way, right? But in the end, it’s all the same.”