Face Down, Please

"Groom's here," Sade said on the radio. "White agbada, that's the big flowing robe, for the kitchen girls who keep asking. He walks like a slow cloud."

"Tunde," Kemi said. "You look lovely."

"What is that?" He was looking past her at the blue cloth.

"A joke. From your boat boys."

He went grey. "Throw it in the water."

"You believe it?"

"I believe they say it." He touched the table and took his hand back. Sand. "I want a family, Kemi, children at a table, not a story. Throw it away."

She put it in her bag instead.

"Who turned all four mirrors to the wall?" Kemi asked.

"Me," said Lola, at the dressing table in her slip. "I hate to see myself before I'm done."

"And you're doing your lipstick with no glass again."

"One line. Perfect. Look."

"You've done your face by feel since you were six."

"Since I got better. Tell the story. I like how you tell it."

"You had a fever for a month, and the hospital sent you home to die. Mummy took you to the beach one night, and in the morning you were eating bread."

"And what did Mummy say?"

"Sea air."

"Sea air," said Lola.

"Why is there wet sand on your shoes?"

"I went to look at the lagoon. Last time as a single girl." Lola held out her arms. "Do my gele. Nobody else can make it stand up."

"Head tie, Sade, before you ask," Kemi said into the radio. "Stiff gold cloth, two people and 20 minutes." She shook it out, and stopped. "Lola. Whose hair is this on the table?"

"What hair?"

"Long and wet. Pale as rope."

"Not mine. Mine's short and black."

"Last time you looked."

Lola did not laugh. She did not touch the hair.

"Kemi. If I don't marry him, what happens to your shop?"

"Nothing."

"Tunde told me. He paid off your bank. He said it was his wedding gift to you."

"Then it's paid, and nothing happens."

"Three men asked me before him," Lola said. "I said no to all three. You never asked why."

"Because you're fussy. Sit still." Kemi pinned the last fold. "There. A gold fan as wide as your shoulders, and Mummy would cry."

"Mummy made me promise I wouldn't," said Lola.

On the left wall, a mirror turned.

"Lola," Kemi said. "It's going round on its nail, by itself. It's facing us."

"What's in it?"

"Only the window. The sky and the water."

"Turn it back," Lola whispered. "Face in. Please."

"The nail's loose, that's all." Kemi turned it and held it to the wall until her arm shook.

"Full house," Sade said at two. "400 in, fans on, and the band's loud enough to shake the cups."

"I found this hall," Aunty Funmi told Kemi. "Remember that when you send the photos. My face, the big one."

"Your face, Aunty. The biggest."

"Bride's moving," said Sade. "Uncle's got her arm, and everybody's up with their phones. Groom's crying, boss, and he's not even wiping it."

"Let him." Kemi let her shoulders drop. "That's it, Sade. The hard part's done."

"Boss. Back steps. Something's come in off the water."

A snake.

"It's long and black and wet, like oil," Sade said, fast. "It's coming straight up the middle, and everybody's on the chairs. Boss, it's under the high table."

"Nobody move!" Ayo shouted. "Don't kill her! Nobody kill her!"

"Her?" cried Aunty Funmi, up on her chair.

"It's up the chair leg," Sade said. "It's lying across Tunde's seat, boss, with its head up. It's looking right at him."

"I told you," Ayo said, near tears. "I told you it was for him."

"I never went to the water," Tunde told the snake, very quietly. "I swear to God. I never went."

"It's getting down," Sade said. "It's going back out to the lagoon, slow. Like it only came to see the seat."

"10 minutes, everybody!" Kemi called, in her bright planner voice. "Drinks are coming!"

"Boss? Where are you going?"

"To my sister."

"Lola. Open the door." Kemi used her own key. "You're not marrying a man with a water wife. I'll tell them it's his rumour and his shame, and nobody blames you."

"That's right," said Lola. "Nobody blames me. Nobody blames you, and you keep your shop."

Kemi stopped.

Lola took the blue cloth from Kemi's bag and folded it corner to corner without looking, the way you fold your own wrapper.

"That's yours," Kemi said.

"Mummy's. I took the mirror off her little shrine this morning, wet the cloth in the lagoon and filled it with sand." Lola opened her own bag. "And here's the hair, off a cheap wig from the market."

"Why, Lola?"

"So they'd all say it about Tunde. Tunde can live with a rumour, Kemi. He's rich."

"But why?"

"Because it was never him." Lola laughed, and it came out wrong. "Mummy didn't take me for sea air. I was dying, so she took me to the water and asked."

"And?"

"I came home well. And I came home promised."

"Promised to what?"

"Baba says she has a rule for men. Mummy said she has one for everyone she helps, and mine is no man, ever." Lola looked at the turned mirrors. "Three men asked, and you never asked why. You found me a rich one, because you needed his money."

"I didn't know."

"I know you didn't. That's why I did the cloth."

"What happens if you marry?"

"She takes back what she gave, and I go back to that bed with the fever." Lola shrugged, small. "Mummy said it would be quick."

"Why didn't Mummy tell me?"

"Because you'd have gone to the water to ask her to let me go. You can't ask twice, Kemi. Mummy said the second asking costs more than the first."

Kemi sat down on the tiles in her good dress.

"The snake," she said. "You did the snake too?"

"No," said Lola. "I didn't do the snake."

"Lola. There's water coming under the door, from the lagoon side." Kemi's voice went thin. "Two narrow marks on the tiles, side by side, and now two more."

"I know."

"They're feet, Lola. Bare feet. Coming in."

All four mirrors turned at once.

"There's a woman in every glass," Kemi said. "She's sitting on your stool, and her hair's long and pale and running with water."

"What is she doing?"

"Your lipstick, Lola. One line, no glass. Just like you."

She spun round. The stool was empty. The seat was wet.

"Don't look at her," Lola said. "Not while she's angry."

"What does she want?"

"What she's owed. And to see who tried to give it away."

"There's no wedding today," Kemi told the hall, into the microphone. "That's my fault, because I planned it. Please take the rice home, there's 50 spare."

"Is it me?" Tunde asked. "Tell me the truth. Is it something I did?"

"No. You did everything right. I'm sorry."

"And your bank?"

"You'll want it back."

"I will," he said, gently. "Not today."

"Sule is a good boy, sir," Ayo said at the door, because somebody had to say something.

"Boss?" said Sade on the radio, small. "Can I still go at six?"

"Go now, Sade. Go and have your date."

Lola had taken off the gele. She sat facing the left mirror, calm, looking into the glass like a girl getting ready for bed.

"18 years I haven't looked," she said. "She's so beautiful, Kemi. Come and see."

"No."

"She's calm with me now," Lola said. "She's looking at you."

Kemi did not turn. She did not need to.

Cold water was already running down inside her dress from one shoulder, the way it would from a wet hand resting there.