“Zimbabwe,” Zoey said as scrolled through the page on her father’s bigger computer later that night after her homework was done.
“Oh!” she exclaimed as a picture that looked almost exactly like Aka’s village scrolled into view. "The Shona people.”
“Kufamba,” Zoey said as she flipped tabs and typed the word into an online translator.
“Kufamba.” She selected Shona in the input window and received: to travel
“Well, that makes sense,” she confirmed to herself. “What was that other word? All?”
After checking her phone, she typed ‘mweya’ in next and received: soul
That makes no sense. Back to reading.
Agriculture … herds … arts, oh those are pretty. Ah! Religion.
The Shona speak to their ancestors who speak to god … who is Mwari. When a person dies, sometimes their spirit doesn’t go to heaven. Instead, it stays with the family. Some of those are shave spirits who are wandering tricksters. Is he saying that the sparkles are these spirits?
More important than what the sparkles are, she told herself as she got back translating, is how he uses them.
How … how? That’s sei. Do, hmmmm, ita. You…ewe kafumba.
Sei ita iwe kafumba. How do you travel? She said it to herself over and over then typed it into her phone just to make sure. She had no idea if the sentence structure was correct or not, but it made sense to her. How do you travel?
Not wanting to seem rude, she also looked up “hello” and received “mhoro”.
“Zoey!” her mother called from downstairs. “Time to get ready for bed!”
***
Even though her mind was still racing the next day, the answers she had so far gave her enough brain power to concentrate on the material being taught and she didn’t look strange in front of her classmates again.
She was barely around the corner from school when Aka appeared just ahead of her.
“Mhoro,” she said with a big smile and Aka blinked. Laughing, he clapped his hands for her.
“Mhoro,” he answered, then said a couple of words that Zoey couldn’t figure out, so she shook her head.
“Sei ita iwe kafumba?” she asked when he stopped speaking.
He blinked again, then took a moment to think.
“Unofamba sei,” he corrected her. Zoey nodded eagerly and typed the words as best she could into her notes.
“Yes!” she exclaimed.
Aka paused for a moment, as if trying to gather his thoughts.
“Mweya?” he asked, and Zoey nodded. The shave spirits who make me teleport.
“Mweya haisi yakachenjera.” Aka made a face known the world over as representing a stupid person. Zoey laughed and nodded again.
“Zoey akachenjera.” Aka touched a finger to his temple and nodded.
“I am smart,” Zoey replied. “So, I trick the tricksters? Trick mweya?” Zoey made gestures she thought a stage magician would use.
“Ehe.” Aka nodded. “Kunyengera mweya.”
“Mweya …” Aka pointed at Zoey, then flicked his hand off into the distance. “Kufamba.”
“The tricksters want to send me away …” Zoey beckoned for more.
“Zoey kuknyengera mweya…iwe unodzora mweya.” Aka closed his hands together, interlacing his fingers.
“I hold them? I keep them? I … I control them? That’s it, isn’t it? That’s it!” Zoey bounced about in her happiness at understanding this. “But how?”
“Sei?” she asked. How?
“Ah!” Aka smiled wide then tapped a finger to his temple. “Funga.”
"Think? I think to fool them?” Zoey shook her head.
Aka furrowed his brow for a moment, then opened his eyes wide when an idea struck him. He squatted down and drew a box, then put a triangle on top.
“House.” Zoey nodded.
Aka straightened, then pointed at Zoey, then touched his temple, then pointed at Zoey again and finally pointed at the etching of the house.
“I think about my house.” Zoey said. “That’s all?”
Aka clenched his fists together and bared his teeth, all but shaking in his demonstration of
concentration.
“I think really hard!” Zoey laughed and reached out for Aka’s hand. Once she had it, she found a sparkle, a little one. Thinking as hard as she could about home, pushing all the fear and worry from her mind, she stepped onto the sparkle.
Blink.
They weren’t at her house. She’d missed.
It took only a second of looking around to realize where they were.
She’d brought them to just in front of her old house in Boulder. The place she still, four months later, thought of as home. It seemed the tricksters had a few tricks of their own.
Aka frowned as he looked around, but Zoey was already searching for a new sparkle. She found one on a leaf on the birch tree out front and, focusing her thoughts, touched it.
Blink.
This time, she’d brought them to the right place. This time they were standing where Aka had brought them after the incident with Rubbish in the dump.
“Aaaaah!” Aka cheered, clapping his hands for Zoey again.
“Chisarai,” he told her, then stepped onto a sparkle and was gone.
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