Page 64 of Death of the Author

She side-eyed him, noting that he hadn’t told her it wasn’t her fault. “Where are we going now?” she asked.

“Joshua Tree,” Msizi said. “We are going to see Marlo and Wind. Seems a good time for a visit.”

“Who are Marlo and Wind?” Zelu asked, sitting up straighter.

“Business associates,” Msizi said. “Met them in Cape Town and we became good friends. They invested in Yebo. Sometimes when I come to LA, I drive here and stay with them for a few days.”

In all their years of knowing each other, he’d never mentioned these people to her before. But that was just how they were. Msizi didn’t haveto divulge everything about his life to her, nor she to him. They just had to trust each other and be trustworthy to one another. She settled back against the headrest and stared into the darkness. Msizi opened the front windows to let in the breeze. The cool, dry desert air smelled distinctly herbal. She was a child of the water, and normally she avoided the desert, but tonight wasn’t normal. She touched the car’s screen and put on a mix of classic Kendrick Lamar songs.

The drive lasted another two hours, and in the last thirty minutes it started to look like they’d jumped a line and driven onto another planet. Miles and miles of open, completely barren land. She knew this only because she’d found a flashlight in the glove compartment and aimed it out her window onto the side of the road.

They turned onto a long dirt road. “How do you even know where to go?” she asked. “It all looks the same.”

He gave her an obvious look and she rolled her eyes. Msizi always bragged that he was a human GPS. And it was true; he never seemed to get lost.

They rolled onto a gravel driveway in front of a large ranch house. It was built from smooth pale stone nearly identical to the rocky land around it, making it look carved from the desert by nature. Blue flower-shaped solar lights ran along both sides of the driveway like an airstrip.

“Do they know we’re coming?” Zelu asked.

“Yes,” Msizi said as he pulled the keys out of the ignition. “I texted them when we were at the car rental place.”

“Who exactly are they again?” she asked, peering out at the large house.

He laughed and just shook his head. “Friends. You’ll see.”

She switched on her exos as Msizi got out from the driver’s side. When he heard them power on, he turned his head and asked, “You all right?”

“Yeah,” she said, sounding more dismissive than she intended.

He closed the door. She paused for a moment and then got out, too. Her exos touched down on the gravelly surface, quickly adjusting to the rocky terrain. Msizi was plugging the car into an electric charging station she hadn’t noticed they’d parked beside. “Nice,” she noted.

“The whole house is solar, too,” Msizi told her. “They’re completely off the grid. Even at night.”

It was dark, but the solar lights illuminated things just enough that she could see that the house’s entire roof was covered with solar panels.

They walked up the driveway, her exos crunching against the gravel. It was crazy quiet here. So quiet that she could hear chirping insects, the brush of bird wings, and the whistle of the wind with stark clarity.

The front door opened. “Welcome!” A heavyset black man with smooth skin, a shiny bald head, and a long salt-and-pepper beard braided at the tip appeared at the foyer. Msizi went over to hug him. When they pulled apart, the man looked at Zelu with a kind smile. But his eyes were intense, and they moved over her from top to bottom. It was like being in front of an X-ray machine.

“Hi,” Zelu said, “... Marlo?” It was a guess; Msizi hadn’t told her who was whom.

“Indeed, I am.” His voice was low and rumbly, the way she imagined a dragon’s would sound. Zelu liked it very much. “Finally, we meet Msizi’s genius writer!”

“I’m definitely a writer,” she said, shaking his hand. Strong, but it didn’t try to squeeze her to death.

The woman she presumed must be Wind stood a step behind him. She was a very dark-skinned black woman, and she wore a long, flowing blue dress and sandals. She carried a tall glass of some green liquid in one hand, and her other hand was on her hip.

“And you’re Msizi’s,” Wind said.

Zelu met her eyes straight on, and Wind did not look away. Normally the direct eye contact startled people, but Wind wasn’t fazed. Zelu looked away first.

“Come on in,” Marlo said, standing back so they could enter the house. “Let’s get you settled.”

Wind and Zelu weren’t going to get along; Zelu was sure of it already. Once inside, Msizi and Marlo went to the back porch to catch up or smokeor drink beer or stargaze or whatever the fuck they were going to do. Zelu was left alone with Wind in a spacious living area.

Wind took a sip of her drink. The silence crept in. Zelu had no energy for chitchat tonight. She just wanted a little something to eat and then a shower and sleep.

“If you want me to bring you something to eat in your room, I can,” Wind said, almost as if she’d heard Zelu’s thoughts. “But I’d prefer it if you had a bite with me.”

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