The Beautiful Side of the Moon by Leye Adenle

Author:Leye Adenle [Adenle, Leye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Speculative fiction
ISBN: 9781912563012
Publisher: Hoatzin Books
Published: 2019-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27 Stir Me Hot

Gunshots woke me up. From the sound of it, many guns were being fired by many shooters. I rolled off the bed, instinctively trying to take shelter under it, but I rolled straight off the mattress and onto the floor. In my panic, I had forgotten there was no bed to shelter under. Other than the mattress the room was bare, and there was no place to hide.

Brother Moses was gone. With my belly flat on the ground I looked through to the adjacent room. The curtain had been drawn back. The room was empty. The shooting stopped. There was something odd about it. A second later I began to laugh.

I got up and saw the clothes laid out on the other side of the mattress: a black suit, a black tie, and a white shirt. On the floor, a pair of shiny black shoes had been placed beside my trainers, next to my folded up clothes. Neatly rolled up silvery socks were sticking out of the new shoes. The fireworks started again. I knew the costume was mine, or rather, Mr Magic’s, but it didn’t feel quite right wearing such immaculate clothes before I’d taken a bath.

Had Adesua had a bath? Where? What about Rachel? Did she have new clothes too? I lifted the edge of the curtain over the window. Brother Moses was in his purple outfit, complete with his hat, standing amidst kids in front of the lorry. He was the one responsible for the fireworks, which were materialising ready lit from his wrists before he tossed them into the air to fully discharge their noisy essence, much to the delight of the cheering village children. I couldn’t see Adesua or Rachel. I was keen to know what Adesua had been telling Rachel last night.

‘Do you take hot or cold showers?’

I dropped the curtain as if I’d been caught doing something bad.

Adesua looked resplendent in her costume: black tights, shiny black boots up to her knees, a white shirt under a fitted black coat with a short tail, and a fluffy black scarf loosely tied round her neck. She also had a black top hat. We would look similar on stage. My heart skipped a beat. I was expected to go out there and do magic, and it wouldn’t be like during my initiation when Brother Moses guided my arms. I would be alone and I didn’t know any magic.

‘Hot or cold?’ she asked again.

‘Warm.’

‘Follow me.’

I followed her. I peered into the other room on our way out. It truly was empty. Adesua led me round the bungalow. The children were too caught up with Brother Moses’ fireworks to notice us. Behind the bungalow there was a cubicle made of corrugated iron sheets set upon a concrete slab four feet by four feet. There was no roof over the shower stall. A transparent shower curtain hung over its one open side. She drew the curtain aside and held it up for me to step inside.

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