The Other Side of Truth Read Online Free PDF Page B

she fell in and out of fitful bouts of sleep. At one point, Mama was squeezing the children’s hands as she led them along a deep forest path. Slits of light filtered through the spiked leaves of giant palms. But when they came to a clearing and Sade looked up atMama, she found herself looking at an unknown woman’s face. Another time, Sade was struggling to stay close to Mama among the crowd streaming through the narrow alleys of Alade Market. Mama had picked up a small saucer of buttons and was holding up a dazzling blue button to the light, asking “Will this color do?” Sade stretched out her hand to take the button but the whole saucer was sent flying as some men in white robes suddenly pushed past them. Sade woke up clutching her fists, straining against the seatbelt. The cold air had crept under her blanket, through her thin sweater and jeans. Apart from the deep droning of the engines there were no other sounds. All the cabin lights were dimmed. Femi was curled up like a bundle underneath his blanket. Sade couldn’t tell if he was actually asleep, but Mrs. Bankole certainly was, judging from her snores.
    Sade shut her eyes again, trying to doze. But the whale-like monster that had swallowed them continued to roar as it winged its way over the earth. There was nothing they could do. Mama couldn’t do anything, lying on the ground covered in a white sheet stained with crimson. And Papa couldn’t do anything, kneeling next to her, crying.
    In the morning when they opened the window shutter, the sky outside was streaked with colors of the rainbow. One minute it was shaded dark indigo blue to creamy white. The next minute, milky blue stretched toward a horizon of oranges and reds. Seconds later all they could see were mountains and valleys of fluffy white clouds.
    “Maybe it’s like snow,” Femi whispered.
    “Cotton wool!” Sade murmured.
    For a short while they were absorbed in the strange sky outside until the flight attendant arrived with more trays of food. Sade felt little cramps in her stomach, but this time both she and Femi opened and sampled the parcels of food. Their last proper meal was one Mama had made for them.
    The plane began to descend through clouds, revealing patchworks of fields from lime greens to chocolate browns. But the colors seemed drained of brightness and soon even those were lost in a hazy mist. When it lifted it was as if a wizard had changed the fields into thousands upon thousands of buildings as far as the eye could see. Everything seemed tinged with gray ash. So this was London and Uncle Dele must be down there, waiting for them. Far below them a river curled through the city like a giant brown python, swollen from overeating.
    “Temperature in London today is eight degrees Celsius…”
    Perhaps Uncle Dele would bring something warm for them to wear. Their cotton coats would certainly not be enough. Sade shivered.

CHAPTER 7
LONDON, ENGLAND
    NOTHING TO DECLARE
    “DON’T SPEAK UNLESS YOU HAVE TO,” Mrs. Bankole warned them. She had smiled good-bye to the flight attendant, but her fleshy cheeks now seemed to stiffen at the corners of her mouth. Mrs. Bankole lowered her voice despite the clatter of feet and squeaking of luggage wheels along a corridor that seemed to have no end. Sade read Femi’s sullen face. Who would they want to speak to anyway? To say what? It was going to be difficult enough talking to Uncle Dele. Sade hoped Uncle Tunde had done all the explaining on the telephone and that he wouldn’t ask more questions. How could she ever put the terrible pictures in her head into words?
    “Hi there! Ain’t you kids gonna freeze?”
    It was the American. The black eyes on his outfit now peeped out from beneath a great black coat that matched a wide-brimmed felt hat.
    “Oh, they’ll be fine!” Mrs. Bankole replied quickly. “My brother will bring their winter coats to the airport. You know they don’t feel the cold like me with my old bones!”
    She laughed