“Kavita, g?n? mere?” Mary replied, sounding confused. “I’ve been trying to reach you all afternoon. Did Vivek reach safely?”

“‘Did Vivek reach safely?’” Kavita repeated, mocking her voice. “Yes, he just got here—and he showed me what those bush people at your church did to him!”

“What?”

“My friend, stop pretending. I saw the welts on his body. You allowed them to flog him?”

“Kavita, I’ve been trying to reach you from since to tell you what happened. It’s not him they were flogging, ?gh?tala? It was the demon inside him.”

Kavita stopped in shock. Mary couldn’t be serious. “What did you just say?” she asked, hoping she’d heard wrong.

“The demon inside him,” Mary repeated. “Yes o, that’s what Pastor said. The boy is possessed by a very, very wicked spirit, a strong demon. It’s what has been causing all of this, the long-hair thing, the wasting away of his physical body. Supernatural forces are feeding on him—on your child! Pastor said we must cut his hair because they are drawing their power from it, like the locks of Samson. This is one of the sources of their strength. But when one of the deacons approached him with scissors, the demon started to fight back!”

Kavita listened in mounting disbelief. Surely this couldn’t be the same Mary she’d known all these years? Impossible. She’d always been religious, but this was something different, something that smelled like rotten meat or madness.

“It wasn’t your son,” Mary continued blithely. “Pastor was saying it, and even everyone in the congregation, we could see it as well. It was the demon fighting to not lose its power. They tried to hold him, but he had the strength of many men. That’s how you know it was the demon. No mortal man could have thrown off all the ushers who were trying to hold him. Eh hehn, so then Pastor said we must subdue the demon at all costs, and so we were praying and binding and casting it, and he brought out his cane to lash it, because you must lash it with holy fire and his own is like the staff of Moses—”

“Stop, stop, stop.” Kavita pressed her fingers to her forehead. “You’re telling me you allowed this pastor to beat my son while you stood there and watched?”

“Kavita, you’re not hearing me. That was not your son.” Mary was starting to sound irritated. “Should I just relax while the devil is using my nephew? I was praying with them, na! Praying for his deliverance, for his spirit to be purged of the evil overtaking it, but I’m telling you, the thing was too strong. He threw off the hands of the people holding him and he ran out of the church, piam! We tried to look for him at the house but he had already collected his things and left. That’s why I’ve been trying to reach you, to make sure that he arrived home safely—because the deliverance was not complete. You and Chika must bring him back, ehn? Pastor says it is very crucial that we finish the deliverance, now that the demon knows we have exposed it. Time is of the essence.”

Kavita pulled the receiver away from her face and stared at it as if its black plastic would help any of this make sense. As she put it slowly back to her ear, Mary’s voice poured out again.

“Tomorrow if possible. Are you there? Are you hearing me?”

Kavita struggled to find the words. It felt like there was a stone in the back of her throat; she wanted to reach her fingers in, pull it out, and use it to bash in Mary’s head, over and over. The feeling surprised her. “Don’t come near my son again,” she managed to choke out.

“Ehn? What did you say?”

“Don’t ever come near my son again,” Kavita repeated, her words clearer this time, sharper. She heard Mary’s intake of breath as if the woman was standing behind her, but she would not stop. “You and your pastor are crazy. You stay away from my family, you hear? Otherwise I swear, I will show you pepper!” Kavita’s hands were trembling again.

“Ah-ahn. You’re talking like this to me? A whole me?”

“Before nko? Is there another Mary who went to church to go and abuse my son?”

“As I’m trying to help you and your son, this is how you want to treat me, ehn, Kavita? Out of the goodness of my heart I asked Pastor to help him, and this is how you’re behaving? Do you know how many people beg Pastor to come and lay his hands on them? I even made extra offering on Vivek’s behalf. Only to be rewarded with this your ingratitude.” Mary sucked her teeth. “Why am I even wasting my time with you people?”

Kavita slammed the phone down, her skin itching. She wished Chika was home, but it was just her and her son. She went to the door of Vivek’s room and stood there, staring at the wood. Of course he didn’t want to talk to her, she thought, not after she’d sent him into that. Kavita sank to the floor and leaned her back against the wall, the linoleum cool under her feet. She pressed her forehead into her palms and cried.

* * *

—

Kavita didn’t tell her husband what happened, not at first. Chika wasn’t surprised by Vivek locking himself in his room; it was normal at this point, so he didn’t ask any questions. Kavita, however, walked around with rage pounding through her, wondering how she could have failed to see what Mary had become, if it was her own carelessness that had resulted in Vivek getting hurt. There was no one she could talk to about it.

The next morning, Rhatha called her. The Nigerwives were convening an emergency meeting around Maja. “She just found out Charles has been keeping a second family,” Rhatha told Kavita, her voice low and scandalized. “Can you imagine? Poor darling. We’re all heading over there this afternoon.”

The news briefly distracted Kavita from her own anger. “Is he still in the house?”

“Goodness, no. She kicked him out, and good for her! It’s one thing to have an affair, or even a mistress, but a whole family?” Rhatha clicked her tongue. “Are you going to come?”

“Yes. Yes, of course. I’ll see you there.” As soon as she hung up, Kavita grabbed her purse and left for Maja’s house, though the meeting wouldn’t begin for hours. Maja was her best friend; it was ridiculous that she was hearing this news through the grapevine—from Rhatha, of all people.

Maja burst into tears as soon as she opened her front door. Kavita dropped her purse, pulling her into a hug.

“Oh, my dear! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m—I’m sorry,” Maja sobbed against her neck. “It’s just—you have so much going on with Vivek, I didn’t want to disturb you. . . .”

“Shh.” Kavita stroked the woman’s hair. “I’m here now. It’s going to be okay.” She pulled back and wiped the wetness off Maja’s face. “Come sit down and you can tell me everything.”

The story was even worse than Kavita had expected. Charles not only had another family, but his child with the other woman was a boy, his first and only son. And it wasn’t just an affair: he wanted to marry the woman, to take a second wife.

“You can’t mean it,” Kavita said, aghast.

“He’s serious.” Maja dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “He says I can’t blame him, that no one would blame him for taking another wife when his first one has failed to give him a son. The woman’s child is his namesake.”

Kavita covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, Maja, I’m so sorry!”

“He agreed to leave because I was making such a scene, but he says he’ll be back, Kavita. He says he’s going to bring the woman into our house. That I can’t do anything about it. I told him I’d take Juju and leave, and he said I should try it.” Tears tracked down her swollen cheeks. “I would leave, I really would, but I can’t find our passports. I think he’s hiding them. And I don’t even know how to tell my parents, you know, because they warned me. They warned me African men were like this, and they told me it was foolish to come here with him, to bring Juju here. He said Juju is not enough, that she’s not a boy. What if she heard him say that? As if she means nothing, as if she’s nothing?”

Kavita held Maja’s hand tightly. “Have you told her yet?”

“No!” Maja’s voice was spiked and loud. She pulled it back down, shaking her head. “No, I can’t tell her. I have to figure something else out. She can’t know he did this, that he’s like this. It would destroy her, and he’s already caused enough damage. She thinks he’s away on a business trip.”