Laki leaned away from Se-se and Wife Strabaha. As her pod began to separate, she realized that she had not given Wife Strabaha an answer.
“Wife Strabaha, you may come to my home tomorrow, but you will have to speak to my mother-unit as I have no wife mother or father.”
Wife Strabaha did not flinch at Laki’s offer. She gracefully accepted it as if the idea of speaking with a mother-unit was not an insult to her.
“And Wife Strabaha, please tell your son that I will enjoy seeing him again. He will be needed to remove the belt should I decide not to accept your offer. I’d hate to destroy such a beautiful family heirloom.”
Laki nodded to Wife Strabaha, as if dismissing her, and winked at Se-se. The glow of admiration spread across Se-se’s face. Laki had done the impossible: she had shed the ugliness that had been weighing her down and was entering maturation luminous and triumphant. Even her pod was majestic in its shimmering crown of starlight.
As Se-se watched Laki’s pod bobbing in the dark stillness of the Stretch, wisps of loss began to unfurl in her chest. She felt the echoes of yesterday tugging at her heart. She had spent an entire childhood chasing after Laki. Even now, after she had restructured Laki’s future, Laki had blown her a kiss and was hurtling away without a backward glance.
Se-se’s vision went blurry as the pain of it broke in her chest. She smiled a quick goodbye to Wife Strabaha then sped away. As she blazed through the Velvet Stretch, the silence of her solitude loomed, mocking her with Laki’s absence. After so many years of living in the shadow of Laki’s brilliance, Se-se was still struggling to hold Laki’s gaze. She soothed herself by pretending that she and Laki had arrived home together, and were running through the halls with twined fingers, breathless with triumph. The need to be at Laki’s side, to share in the glory of the news, urged her to push her pod to move a faster. But even as she raced to catch up with Laki, she knew it was too late. Laki was already gone. All that was left of her was a flash of light, plummeting toward home.
Author Biography
Kiini Ibura Salaam is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. After being paid $100 for the publication of her first story, she proclaimed herself a “serious” author at the tender age of eighteen. Kiini’s work is rooted in eroticism, speculative events and worlds, and women’s perspectives. Her fiction has been included in such publications as Dark Matter, Mojo: Conjure Stories, and Dark Eros.
Kiini’s creative nonfiction speaks to her two passions: the freedom of women and the freedom of the creative spirit. In essays about date rape, sexual harassment, and the power of the word no Kiini explores the complex layers of societal norms that negatively impact women’s lives. In addition to having been published in Essence, Ms., and Colonize This! her creative nonfiction has been included in college curricula in the areas of women’s studies, anthropology, history, and English.
For the past ten years, Kiini has written the “KIS.list,” an e-column that explores the writing life and encourages readers to fulfill their dreams. She works as an editor in New York and maintains a site dedicated to her work at www.kiiniibura.com. She and her daughter live in Brooklyn.
Publication Acknowledgments
Ancient, Ancient: First published in African Voices, 2002, Cetera Press.
At Life’s Limits: First published in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, 2000, edited by Sheree R. Thomas, Warner Books
Bio-Anger: First published in Tumbarumba, 2008, http://www.turbulence.org/Works/tumbarumba/, edited by Ethan Ham and Benjamin Rosenbaum
Tumbarumba is a 2008 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.
Debris: First published in Ideomancer, 2006, Volume 6, Issue 1, Twenty-three Small Disasters, http://www.ideomancer.com/main/vol6issue1/rosenbaum_et_al/debris.html
Desire: First published in Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, 2004, edited by Sheree R. Thomas, Warner Books
Ferret: First published in Infinite Matrix, 2003, edited by Eileen Gunn, http://www.infinitematrix.net/stories/shorts/ferret.html,
K-USH: The Legend of the Last Wero: First published in FEMSPEC, 2005, Volume 6, Issue 1, edited by Batya Weinbaum
MalKai’s Last Seduction: First published in Dark Eros: Black Erotic Writings, 1997, edited by Reginald Martin, St. Martin’s Press
Of Wings, Nectar, & Ancestors: First published in Fertile Ground: Memories & Visions, 1996, edited by Kalamu ya Salaam and Kysha N. Brown, Runagate Press
Rosamojo: First published in Mojo: Conjure Stories, 2003, edited by Nalo Hopkinson, Warner Books
Copyright
Aqueduct Press, PO Box 95787
Seattle, WA 98145-2787
This book is fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Print Copyright © 2012 Kiini Ibura Salaam
Digital Copyright © 2012 Kiini Ibura Salaam
All rights reserved.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-61976-010-3
Cover Design by Nneka Bennett
Cover Illustration, “Woman in the Sea,” courtesy Niko Guido
Book Design by Kathryn Wilham