The Other Side of Truth Read Online Free PDF

many grown-ups pretend and lie? But not Papa. And that’s why Mama was…Sade slammed down the shutter in her brain.
    “I think it’s horrible too,” she replied clearly. Next to the crocodile bag were carvings of animals and a cluster of wooden heads. Many of the heads looked quite similar until she noticed the pair in the far corner. She studied the faces. The carved pattern of the woman’s hair was so familiar. How like an older version of her own pair they were! Her own Oko and Iyawo…stranded…deserted…on her desk at home. Impulsive hot tears pricked and burned.
    “I-I need the toilet,” she managed to whisper.
     
    Behind the closed door, Sade crouched on the seat trying to contain the waves of sobs. Her hands over her mouth did their best to stifle them. But she was trembling as badly as one of those lemons that hung on so desperately when Mama shook the branch. Pulling the chain, she tried to drown her strangled cries.
    “Yemi! Hurry up now! They have announced our flight!”
    It was Mrs. Bankole, sharp as any peacock.
    “I’m coming.” Sade’s lips mouthed the words.
    “Yemi! Do you hear me? Yemi?”
    Forcing her legs into action, Sade undid the lock.
    “I felt sick,” she mumbled feebly.
     
    For Sade, much of the journey was a blur. It was unreal. Yesterday evening she had been at her desk doing her homework. Like any other school night. Mama bringing her a chocolate drink before she went to bed, telling her that she shouldn’t stay up too late. Don’t worry, Mama, she had replied, Iyawo is watching. It was a joke between them. That Oko and Iyawo kept an eye on her for Papa and Mama.
    But, tonight…What was she doing looking at those rows of wooden heads in an airport kiosk instead of at her own Oko and Iyawo? Who was this stranger, calling her Yemi, pretending to be their mother? Was this just a nightmare? Perhaps she would wake up in her own bed with Mama shaking her gently. “What’s wrong, my child?” she would ask. “A bad dream?”
    Sade was vaguely aware of the flight attendant giving instructions about lifebelts and oxygen masks, of Femi fiddling with earphones and buttons, of roaring in her ears while she peered out into the night where shadowy shapes fell away beneath them. Somewhere, already far below, giant-leafed plantains were whispering under the lamplight at the corner and Mr. Abiona’s old wooden table was tucked away for the night underneath the almond tree. Somewhere, casuarina pines were spreading their needle-fine fingers against the sky and sending their scent into an empty room where a wooden girl with patterned hair watched over a vacant desk. But below them, all that could now be seen through the planewindow was a scattering of pinprick lights surrounded by darkness. Soon those too had become fainter until there was nothing.
    It had been one of Sade’s dreams to travel on an airplane. Papa and Mama had promised they would take them one day. But it was not meant to be like this. Tonight she was spinning into the darkness of space, let loose from almost everything and everyone she knew, except Femi. And he too was slipping from her fingers.

CHAPTER 6
FLIGHT
    “ARE YOUR CHILDREN ALL RIGHT?”
    The blue-button eyes of the flight attendant startled Sade. They darted between the children and Mrs. Bankole. Neither Sade nor Femi had touched anything on the plastic trays of food.
    “Thank you. They’re just tired!”
    Mrs. Bankole and the flight attendant smiled at each other. Sade and Femi remained silent. On a screen above them, a tiny stick-insect plane perched over a map of Africa, pointing northwards over the Sahara. A loudspeaker voice gave details of how high…far…fast they were traveling. Every hour that little black fly-thing would show them being carried more and more hundreds of miles away from home.
    Sade pulled down the window shutter, then closed her eyes, trying to shut everything out. But there was no escape from the steady booming of the engines as