Page 33 of Death of the Author

As she watched the video clips and learned more, tears started rolling down her face. Soon she was absolutely sobbing. They weren’t tears of joy, thrill, or happiness... but they weren’t tears of sadness, either. She didn’t know what direction she was going, but she was in motion.

When she got home hours later, after her sister-in-law had returned to relieve her from cat duties, her mother was waiting in the kitchen.

“I made you some beans and plantain,” she said. “Let me get it for you.”

Zelu wheeled toward the table. “Thanks, Mom.”

“How was your day?” her mother asked she as loaded up the plate.

“Weird.”

Her mother paused, looking at Zelu’s face closely. “Go on.”

So you can call me crazy?“Actually, nah, don’t want to get into it.” She laughed. “It was okay. Went to the lake, then Tolu’s place—”

“To see that leopard?”

Her mother was terrified of Man Man. She said that in Nigeria, people put teams together to hunt that kind of animal. And when the animal was caught, there was a great celebration as its coat was presented to the king.

“Yep.” Zelu grinned. “Man Man is a big furry angel.”

“Until he decides you’re ready to be eaten,” her mother said. She set the beans and plantain on the table, and Zelu’s mouth instantly began to water. Once again, she’d forgotten to eat all day.

“Be careful around that animal,” her mom warned. “Remember, you can’t exactly run away.”

Normally, a comment like this would have gotten on her nerves, but not today.Maybe I can’t run away right now. But who knows what the future holds?Zelu thought.She dug into her spicy mashed black-eyed peas and plantain fried to brown perfection. “Oooooh, yeah,” she moaned.

14

The Tree

Zelu was running.

And laughing. They were at the back of the house and it was the Fourth of July. Every so often, she heard the explosive boom of fireworks, and she wondered yet again why people set off fireworks in the middle of the day. The air smelled like smoke. It was wonderful. She ran faster.

“I hate this game!” her friend Sarah shouted from behind her. Zelu didn’t have to look back to know that the boys were coming. The boys had bet their portion of her mother’s brownies, and Zelu loved her mother’s brownies. She wasn’t going to lose.

She and her friends had come up with the “Hunger Games,” which was just a more violent version of tag. They threw sticks and stones, hit each other, shoved one another down. Whoever was left standing was the winner. Zelu hadn’t even liked the movies, but this was exhilarating—waybetter than regular tag or hide-and-seek. Zelu’s strategy was always to hide and wait it out. Sarah had stupidly run in the same direction as her, drawing too much attention. No matter; Zelu had a plan. She veered to the side and shoved Sarah over. “You’re out!” she shouted, laughing.

Sarah looked up from the concrete, rubbing her scratched elbow. “What! I thought—”

“Not when I can getallthe brownies!” Zelu declared before running off. She could see three boys heading in her direction. They must have figured out that their chances of winning were better if they teamed up to catch her first, before fighting each other. She guffawed wildly as she raced toward the big tree that sat in the middle of the backyard. She had an advantage, and she was going to use it.

“Bitch!” she heard Sarah shout behind her.

Zelu looked up at the tree’s high branches. She looked back one more time. The boys were only yards away.

“Don’t even bother!” shouted Mike, who was twelve like Zelu. But he was winded. She could make it.

Zelu bent her knees down low, took a deep breath, and jumped as high as she could. Then she grabbed. And grasped. Her secret weapon was that she had remarkable upper-body strength. It was what made her so good at swimming. Even in third grade she’d been able to do the bent-arm hang for a record time in gym class, and she could do pull-ups like a grown man.

And so, she pulled herself up on that tree branch, climbed up three more, looked down at the boys, and smugly flipped both her middle fingers at them. She knew there was no way any of them could reach her. She could easily dodge anything they threw at her up here.

“That’s cheating!” Mike yelled.

“Uh, no, it’s not,” Zelu said. “It’s in the booksandmovies. People escaped into trees all the time.” She snickered. “I’ll come down as soon as the three of you duke it out and there’s only one of you left to fight.”

The boys exchanged glances. Then they started chasing and throwing things at one another. Zelu was laughing and laughing. She was the queen of the world, and there were stupid boys below her fighting each other. She’d kissed all three of those boys at different times in the last two years. She perched in the tree like a leopard and looked into the sky. She tookanother breath. Her grades were a little above average, but she planned to get them higher because she’d heard astronauts were always at the top of their class.

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