“Me?” He let out with a small burp. He leaned back on the couch and made himself comfortable. “Call me Akil…my name given by the people is Anansi the Spider.”
“A spider?” I asked with a smile. “You do not look like a spider to me.”
“No? Good…Means I’m doing something right with my life,” he scoffed.
“Where is Maggie?” I asked.
“She’s talking with Gaia.”
“The moon?” I questioned with a raise of my voice. He snorted like I was joking.
“Sure, the moon.” he replied with a smirk as he took another bite. “She’s getting her together right now. Been throwing shit off lately, and the fuck took y'all so long, huh?” He questioned. “Ithought once y'all found a book, I get you out of the library and shit, stick you in a story, and y'all would figure it out. We almost out of gah damn time now.”
He had such a strange way of speaking that I found myself smiling more so than listening. What an unusual accent. Akil slapped his hands together, brushing away the breadcrumbs as every bit of food was already gone. I watched him lean forward to pick up what I now know is a blunt thanks to Asha as he took a lighter to flick a flame to the end of it.
“What about me?” I asked with a proud tone. He looked at me with a raised brow as he blew a cloud of smoke. “You know who she is then you should know who I am…especially in relation to her.”
Akil took a deep inhale of his blunt as he leaned back to make himself comfortable. With his other hand, he reached for his unusual prickly peculiar hair and began to twist it from its root. It was almost as if he was comforting himself as his pink eyes gently curled in relaxation.
“What do you wanna know?” He asked as the smoke escaped his lips. “You wanna know your story? I’m good at those…I’m in the business of telling stories.”
“I do.”
The lights in the childhood home suddenly grew dim, matching the orange desert glow from my home back in the Kingdom. Leaning forward, he pinched the blunt one last time, pulled deep from his chest before releasing a thick smoke from his nose that settled into the air.
“On this day…” He reached for the swirl of white smoke that hovered between us and pinched at the cloudy piece that shiftedinto a swirling ball. “A king that was said to have been made from the sun, gave birth to a daughter…”
I watched in awe as the smoke began to shift into a woman, my mother holding me in her arms while another figure knelt on his knees.
“The palace celebrated the arrival of this princess with the news spreading to the other six territories…”
I watched as the smoke formed men and women dancing underneath the sun with a serpent flying around. I could hear the laughter. Even smell the smoked meats and sweet fruits of my home, and see my father sit on his throne with me in his arms. My mother standing proudly at his side, having just become the queen. Then smoke shifted into a flame that suddenly formed legs, and a slender body with hair draped down the backside as it began to walk.
“That is me,” I smiled. Akil looked at me before pulling back on the blunt once more to release another cloud of smoke.
“Y'all mothafuckas know how to party,” he said with a suppressed cough. “It was nonstop…the music, folks were drunk in the streets, women were out there selling it, and men were out there buying all because of the arrival of a princess who was said to be of rare and royal bloodline. As she got older, the king was having a hard time keeping curious and prying eyes away from his daughter, so he made sure to cover her face and body. So that no man would lay eyes on what he believed to be rare and special…Now, with no birth of a prince from the queen, the king became frustrated with his wife…”
I watched the figure stretched even taller and started to walk opposite of my father while he began screaming angrily at who I believe may be my mother. She looked over her shoulder at himas a wisp of smoke trickled from her shoulder before continuing to swish from left to right with her hips, unbothered by his rage.
“He was being pressured by other territories and his council as curiosity grew about the famous daughter who is said to be powerful, the most powerful as she is a direct descendant of the sun. The king did everything he could to protect her from those who wanted to harm her…those who wanted to take her. He was offered money, gold, cars, everything…”
I watched as men lined up towards the throne with my father unmoving, but his council whispered behind his back, becoming angry and irritated by his decision.
“People in his own kingdom began to resent the way he was running this country…this territory. The Solhari people were not only prince-less as the king could never produce a proper prince from the chosen queen. He also had a daughter he refused to let go of.”
“He never let me see the world the way he did,” I said.
“Because your father wanted you to take his place on the throne. That…is the truth.”
My lips parted as I stared at the strange smoking man, unsure of what to think. I could not imagine myself on the throne…
“He knew that was not your story. You did not have it in you,” Akil admitted. “But that was his plan, and I think some began to suspect this. When he was a young prince…he never wanted to follow the footsteps of his infamous tyrant father. He was fascinated with this world, the same as his daughter…Most saw this as an insult as he protected the most powerful weapon in all of the land. Who everyone believed to be his daughter, and whocould possibly take over. Instead of marrying her off, he kept her close and began to bring outside in…”
I tried to smile at the sight of my father traveling by plane, sightseeing as a secret royal, traveling the world as the sun circled the earth twice. This is where I learned of the movies, clothes, phones, and music… The different cultures, complexions and so much more. My father introduced me to a lot through his eyes but never allowed me to see it for myself. Then the smoke suddenly dissipated. Akil used his hand to grab the last wisp of smoke, pinching it between his fingers to pull throughout the air as swings began to spread and the serpent began to fly all around us before disappearing. I waited as he took another drag on the blunt. Smoke came tumbling out of his nostrils as I watched my form running through the familiar towns and neighborhoods until a train blew by, disrupting the imagery until it was just me standing in what looked like a school uniform and I was looking up at the full moon…Dozens, if not hundreds of students formed all around me looking up at the full moon swirling above. Confused, I stared at the smokey visual before smiling.
“Why am I amongst the rest looking up at the moon when I am of the sun?” I asked with an air in my tone.
His brows came together as he used his hand to gently whip around the image of everyone standing still, looking up as if possessed, and it reverted back to a woman crying by herself. A woman I have never met before was hysterical until the smoke formed a baby laying in the center of a bed with eyes that beamed like sunrays. Her feet kicked and she didn’t cry, she simply stared up with the sunrays like a golden light shining from her before it disappeared.
