Mwikali and the Forbidden Mask by Shiko Nguru

Author:Shiko Nguru
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781915244055
Publisher: Lantana

It took ages to convince her mum that she wasn’t ill. Mum kept placing the back of her hand on Mwikali’s forehead, convinced that she had some form of fever-induced madness that would explain why she had slept all afternoon the day before and right through the night, even refusing to come down for dinner.

Apparently, when Auntie had tried to wake her up to eat, Mwikali had mumbled something about being stuffed like a pig.

While scrambling to shower and change into her church clothes, Mwikali noticed multi-coloured pastel stains on her fingertips. The kind she got when she did a series of drawings. Had she drawn something during her vision?

There had been no time to investigate before church, but afterwards, she hid away in her bedroom and rifled through her sketchbook for any new additions.

There were three new drawings! At what point had she drawn them? Was it when she was tracing her finger through the soil in Susu’s hut?

A shiver rippled through Mwikali as she took in the first image. It was of a mask, shaped like a snarling demon and coloured in with red and black pastels. It had cracked lines all over it, making it look like a completed jigsaw puzzle. Something about the mask made her skin crawl. Something about it seemed evil.

She was only too happy to flip away from that page and onto the next. There, she found a drawing of a stately-looking and elaborately-decorated office. Richly coloured traditional fabrics draped the chairs, and a variety of wooden carvings and traditional weaponry stood on proud display along the walls.

In the middle of it all was a large, heavy desk centred on top of a zebra-print rug. A shiny blue, old-timey dial-up phone sat on top of the desk, looking like a prop from a movie.

Black Panther, Mwikali mused. If this was a film, it would be Black Panther, and this would be his office.

She eventually turned to the next page. The final drawing was by far the best and brought a huge smile to Mwikali’s face.

Odwar, Soni, Xirsi and her were all in the picture. Mwikali was at the centre, holding her sketchbook. Odwar was standing beside her, while shadow-Odwar flexed a bicep down below. Soni stood on Mwikali’s right, holding a staff above her head. And Xirsi was sitting proudly on a tree behind them with a bird perched on his shoulder.

Mwikali’s eyes grew shiny. They looked like real warriors — so brave, so powerful, so cool! And she looked like she fitted right in with them.

She looked like she belonged.

*

“OH YEAH!” Soni exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her bum. “You did it! You’re back on your A-game!”

She was holding Mwikali’s sketchbook in her hands, smiling from ear to ear as she looked over the drawing of the four of them. The two girls were seated across from each other on the sports field, waiting for Xirsi and Odwar to show up so they could spend morning break together like they always did.

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