Rebel Sisters Read online

  * * *

  ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

  The walls of Ify’s bedroom glimmer with soft blue light.

  Her tablets glow with readings of patients she has been studying and their various medical conditions. The physical ailments are easy enough to treat. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of seeing how the body and the brain are interacting, how they are learning from and about each other. At first, Ify thought it would be different when working on cyberized or partially cyberized patients. The braincase or the false organs, they were supposed to work on a pre-regulated rhythm or operate on a predetermined schedule, something that could be tweaked or adjusted or changed in a laboratory. She thought it would be like tinkering with the inside of a watch. But, just like with red-bloods, it is all about harmony. If she’s learned nothing else, it is that disharmony in one part of the body will lead to disharmony elsewhere. And that sometimes, to aid someone suffering physical pain, you needed to treat a disharmonious mind.

  She knows she should be asleep, but her mind is working the main problem before her, and she cannot let herself rest until she finds a solution. Peter.

  It takes all her effort to keep from cursing herself for underestimating him. But how could she have known he would piece things together so quickly? She still can’t figure out what he’s after. But what if it’s as simple as a place in Alabast? It’s an attractive enough life. She looks around at her room and thinks about the rest of her apartment: the spacious living room with its high-backed sofas and minimalist-patterned cushions, the kitchen connected to it, and the bathroom large enough to do a cartwheel in. It would be attractive to any migrant, especially one fleeing war. But she has tried to chase him away, and rather than look for easier marks, he has dug his heels in. And why lie about his origins? Why not just say that he is fleeing conflict? Maybe he is worried that, because the war is ended, his application for asylum will be denied and he will have to languish in the Jungle before being deported. She feels as though she is on the cusp of figuring out his motive, figuring out what he is trying to get and what he’s willing to do to get it, but that moment when it all clicks is just out of reach. Whenever she tries to grab it, it slips further and further away. So she stares at the ceiling and waits and hopes it will fall into her head.

  Answers come to prepared spirits, a professor told her.

  Her wallpaper TV flashes with a broadcast from the main Colony news station. A light-skinned woman in a blazer and red blouse is talking while a chyron rolls by below: NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY PASSED BY LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO GO INTO EFFECT TOMORROW. EXPERTS PREDICTING RISE IN DEPORTATION ORDERS.

  Is this the answer Ify’s been looking for?

  Her Whistle chirps with an incoming call.

  She activates it, and before her appears Grace. All the poise and tenderness from earlier is gone, replaced by a jittery, barely restrained urgency. “Doctor, there is an emergency. Your presence is needed in the east wing immediately.”

  If Ify is honest with herself, she needs this. Work can distract her from these other worries. It can cocoon her in purpose. Already, she is changing into her hospital outfit. “What’s the emergency? And you don’t have to call me Doctor . . . yet. My licensing exam isn’t until three months after graduation.”

  “Well, Doct—I mean, Ms. Diallo. We . . . we’re not quite sure. It’s the refugees. They’re not responding.”

  Ify freezes in the act of putting on her hospital coat. “What do you mean not responding?”

  “Please come immediately. I will keep this comms channel open as you make your way to the hospital. In the meantime, I’m uploading all the information we have at the moment. But I think it’s best if you see this in person.”

  Ify receives the documents with a ping before Grace has even finished talking. Patient diagnostic after patient diagnostic. Hundreds of documents she reviews as she leaves her apartment, takes the elevator down to her street, and hurries to the ward. All of them children. She looks at the FOUR scores, the measure grading their Full Outline of UnResponsiveness. Nearly all of them are at zeroes. Those with higher scores start to decline right before Ify’s very eyes, so that by the time she arrives at the hospital, all of them have reached zero. Eyelids closed. No response to pain. Absent pupil, corneal, and cough reflexes. Their breathing steady with the ventilator rate. But what worries Ify is what may happen if the comas persist. The longer they stay like this, the greater their risk of catching things like pneumonia. And dying.

  All thoughts of clinical diagnosis fall away, however, when she arrives at the ward and sees them. Hundreds upon hundreds of beds holding children strapped to cerebral monitors. All of them beeping in unison. All of those sounds telling her that these children are just barely alive.

  CHAPTER

  10

  In the trailer, Xifeng is swabbing my wounds and putting together the skin of my arms where it is ripping. I am thinking backward to attack and not remembering feeling any pain. And when I am sitting on stool with my arm in Xifeng’s hands soft as beachsand, I am not feeling any pain either. I am only feeling pain from sun and from poison in the air when I am being pulled from mountain of bodies, like I am being born, and when I am baby and everything is new. I am feeling thing like pain, but then that is going away and I am not feeling any thing. And I am wondering if it is because something is broken inside me.

  For a long time, Xifeng is working without saying any words. I am thinking that this is the first time she is seeing me fighting and killing, but I am remembering that I am running away from caravan to keep her safe but also to be keeping her from seeing me fighting and killing.

  “Do you know why we are doing this work, Uzo?” she is asking me in Taishanese.

  I am looking at Xifeng’s face when she is saying this softly. She is not looking at me. She is focusing on my arm and on repairing my wound and spraying chemical on it that will be binding the skin back together and hiding the metal underneath that is my skeleton.

  “We are preserving memory of a painful time in your country’s history. We are making sure that people don’t forget. It is important to remember these things, even if they hurt to remember.”

  When she is saying these thing, I am thinking of the old woman and when I am carrying dead body to her and water is leaking from her eyes. She is sadding, but it is feeling like good thing to be doing this thing for her.

  “The government in this country is forcing people to forget.”

  It is the first time I am hearing Xifeng talking about government. Every time I am hearing or seeing government it is when people are wearing soldier uniform or people are shooting at people wearing soldier uniform. Always in rememberings. This is the first time I am hearing it with my ears.

  “The government is using their powers to erase the memories of everyone in the country. Everyone is connected by way of their braincases like the one you have in your head. They are all linked to their net, which helps them live their lives. It helps them buy groceries, listen to music, study in school. But it is also a tool of surveillance for the government, and the government is peeking into the minds of every citizen and erasing their memories of the war. Do you know why this is bad, Uzo?”

  I am watching Xifeng lifting my shirt and dabbing with antiseptic at the cuts on my side. And I am thinking of woman who is sadding over body I am bringing her. But I am also thinking of rememberings I am downloading into my braincase and things I am seeing in my mind, and sometimes seeing those things is making me angry and is making me to be sadding. Air conditioning in the trailer is chilling my skin. “It is hurting,” I say.

  Xifeng is looking at me and stopping with my medicine, and I am thinking that she is thinking I want her to stop healing me, but I like it when she is touching me like this.

  “The rememberings, I mean,” I am saying to her, and I am making sure to be speaking Taishanese too, because even though she is sadding at first when she is h
earing it, she is then smiling, and I am thinking that this is a thing that is making her to be happy.

  Xifeng is smiling and going back to fixing me. Cotton and gauze that is red-black with the oil that was spilling out of me is all over the floor where Xifeng and I are sitting. “The government thinks that if they erase all memory of the civil war, then they will have peace. If your neighbor kills your family, how will you be able to live next to them when the war is over? You will be consumed with anger and rage. You will want vengeance.”

  “You will not be wanting to be living next to this person.” I am looking at the hard drives on the shelves at the far end of the trailer, and I am beginning to be understanding what vengeance is. And that there is being war here and maybe war is why I am at bottom of pile of bodies when Enyemaka are finding me. Maybe war is what I am doing in my rememberings when I am hurting people or killing them.

  “So if you forget that this happened to you, then you can live next to your neighbor again,” says Xifeng.

  “But you are also forgetting that you are having family. You are forgetting that you are having mother and that she is loving you. Maybe you are forgetting you are having brother who is mean to you also. But maybe you are also forgetting that brother is protecting you from bullies and pulling blanket over your head when it is raining in your home.”

  Xifeng is looking at my face, and I am understanding that she is proud of me for saying these thing.

  “We are bringing these memories to the people.” Xifeng is finishing with the woundings on my stomach and on my ribs, and she is pulling my shirt back down. She is putting her hand on my knee and kneeling in front of me and looking in my face. “Do you see those hard drives over there?” And her finger is pointing to the black boxes piled on top of each other against the walls of her trailer. And I am nodding my head yes, and Xifeng is saying, “Those contain the memories of people who died in the war. People who left behind loved ones. And those loved ones don’t know what happened to these people. We will be going back to those loved ones, and we will show them what happened to the people they lost. We will be restoring memories.”

  “It is good that we are doing this.” It is question in my mind, but it comes out as answer when I am speaking.

  We are smiling at each other’s faces when I am smelling rotten egg, and before I am telling to Xifeng what is happening, my eyes are rolling up into my head and I am on the ground shaking shaking.

  I am seeing little girl sitting on side of bed and she is having tablet computer on her knees and I am saying something to her about needing to wake up and go to school and she is dragging her feet and I am saying, “Come on, now! Chop chop-oh!” and I am hurrying her out of tent and into humid air filled with mosquitoes. Then there is static like I am seeing when I am downloading into my braincase broken memories, and I am on side of a small hill and I am looking out over water and this same little girl is sitting next to me and we are saying something but it is mumbling in my ears, but I am calling her Ify.

  Then I am waking up again in Xifeng’s trailer. She is holding me in her arms and rocking me back and forth to be calming me and she is humming a song, and even though there are many many question in my head buzzing like mosquito I am happy and I feel safe and I am thinking that Xifeng is only this way with good person. Never with bad person.

  This is how she is telling me that I am good person.

  * * *

  ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

  The city of Lagos is giving me too much information in my brain. Too much information about too many people is fighting inside my braincase, and I am breathing regularly again when Xifeng and I and a smaller Enyemaka are finding passage on small boat into Makoko shantytown.

  The moon is shining on the water, and the water is shimmering and making quiet sounds that is making me to feel like smiling. Small small drone is hovering over the water and spraying chemical over the surface that is shimmering, and I am knowing that this is to be killing the mosquitoes that are carrying diseases. The drones are sometime looking like mosquito themselves, but they are not stinging people, and I am seeing that they are metal and safe.

  As we are moving through the water by the Third Mainland Bridge that is connecting Lagos to the outer islands, we are passing under smaller bridges that are so skinny only one person is walking up or down at a time. But some people are walking fast fast like they are not worrying about falling into the water. I dip my hand, and the water is cold to touch, and Xifeng is watching me and smiling, and I am taking my hand out because I am shy suddenly. And she is trying to hide a giggle by pressing her lips tight together.

  She is holding hard drive in her lap with tiny squirming Enyemaka who will be standing guard, and I am holding rememberings in my head. We are soon arriving at a home on stilts that are being driven deep into the water of the lagoon. There is a ladder leading up to the edge of the platform the house is sitting on, and even though the person inside is knowing that we are coming (Xifeng is telling me this), we move quiet quiet. Xifeng is paying boatman, and we are climbing until we get to the platform, and then Xifeng is knocking softly and wooden door is opening slowly and old man with beard like his chin is covered in dandelion seedheads is standing in the darkness. Xifeng puts down tiny Enyemaka, and it is standing outside door to keep watch for trouble. It is linking to me through my braincase, so I am seeing what it is seeing while seeing what I am seeing.

  Xifeng and I are walking into the darkness, and I am detecting another person here. An old woman who is looking like she is all wrinkles and who is not moving but who is appearing on my screen as alive. She is having heartbeat and pulse and she is having breath in her lungs.

  The man with dandelion beard is speaking to the woman, who is just saying nothing, then. He is walking to Xifeng, and they are speaking quietly. Xifeng is making sure that they are the right people and that she is bringing them what they are asking for.

  Then Xifeng is making hand signal for me to come to her. “It is time,” she is telling me.

  Cord is coming out of the back of my neck and I am plugging into hard drive, and I am sending rememberings into it. Before we are arriving here, I am sectioning off these rememberings and placing them in mental folder for when I will be needing to upload them. When I am finished, I unplug my cord and it is slithering like snake back into my neck.

  Then I am stepping away while Xifeng is finding projector and plugging hard drive into it. Suddenly whole room is filling with blue light, and in the center of the room is a young man and he is wearing soldier’s coat, but it is open and loose on his shoulders. He is eating yams on a plate and he is being with other soldiers like him, relaxing under tent, and I am hearing them speaking and telling joke on each other and laughing with mouth full. Then I am seeing all of the soldiers facing commander and looking to right and seeing soldier and looking to the left and seeing soldier, and I am seeing commander giving them commands and saying they should be proud of what they are doing, and commander is putting hand on person’s shoulder so it is looking like he is putting hand on our shoulder and he is pinning medal onto person’s chest.

  Old woman in the room we are standing in is moving. Small small. So small I am not knowing that Xifeng is seeing, but old woman moves and small small river is running from her eyes. I am thinking that maybe the remembering is belonging to her grandson.

  There is another part of the remembering. We are seeing from the person’s eyes that they are piloting mech and zoom zooming through the air, and there is much shouting and katakata, then explosion and static and nothing.

  The remembering stops, and the room is being like night again.

  The man with dandelion beard is being quiet for long time and water is coming from his eye too, and then he is telling Xifeng thank you in small small voice, and then he is hugging her and he is making hand sign to old woman, who is slow slow turning to Xifeng and smile is crossing her lips.

 
My head is beeping, and I am seeing with small Enyemaka’s eyes that boat is disturbing the water outside. Police.

  “We must go,” I am warning Xifeng in quiet voice. I am speaking in Xifeng’s language so that man and older woman who is smiling through the water on her face are not understanding what we are saying.

  Xifeng is wanting to linger and spend more time with family but I am pulling her through door and wishing I am having pistol with me. But Xifeng is telling me that it is bad for me to be walking with gun on me, even though I am telling her it is to protect her and I am not bad person.

  We are leaving the home, and I am careful not to just throw Xifeng into water. She is picking up small Enyemaka and holding her in her arms, and I am looking down to see that boatman who bring us here is gone. He is leaving with all of our money.

  I am pulling Xifeng with me, and we find bridge connecting to another house, and we are walking fast over it.

  “Uzo, please slow down,” Xifeng is whispering to me. I am wanting her to not be speaking at all. We cannot be slowing down now. Bridge is bending too far beneath our weight.

  We arrive at another platform and we run to another bridge, but it is just plank of wood and Xifeng slips, and the only thing that is keeping her from falling in water with small Enyemaka is my hand wrapped around her wrist. Bridge is bending beneath me and almost snapping. Creaking, creaking, and creaking. I am swinging Xifeng back and forth.

  “Wait, wait,” Xifeng is hissing, scared.

  But I am ignoring her as I use all my strength to throw her onto next platform as plank is snapping beneath me and I am falling into water with loud splash.

  Lights are moving over me like circles, and at first I am thinking this is moonlight, then I am realizing there are too many circles and it is police on boats, and I am staying underwater hoping Xifeng is not looking over ledge trying to find me.