“So we’re counting on your help, brother,” Opal said. Star Deer nodded.
Opal pushed past Clarence and sat down in the chair waiting for her by Raven’s bed. She lifted his painting hand and kissed it. Redwood, Aidan, and Iris crowded around the bed too, holding onto each other. Cinnamon was light headed and wobbly. Klaus and Marie wobbled next to her. Nobody was going to fall on their faces. Raven shook the staff at Redwood and Aidan. They dipped and twirled in his gentle beat.
“Gilidinehuyi,” Opal whispered Raven’s secret name. Star and everyone echoed her. “Gilidinehuyi.” Opal leaned her ears to his lips as soft sounds spilled out. Words? Opal’s poker face gave nothing away.
“Children of thunder, Gilidinehuyi,” the Wanderer murmured then faded out as if a hoodoo light-board operator was sliding the dimmer from full down to zero on a ten count.
“Easy is overrated.” Cinnamon, Klaus, and Marie came together on an upbeat.
“Who you mean to be is always hard.” Cinnamon poured libation to the master of uncertainty. “But we will do magic for small change.”
Glossary
adinkra — Visual symbols on cloth created by the Akan to embody ideas or proverbs
ahosi — Fon, member of the king’s household, wife of the king, warrior woman
ajaho — Fon, head of the Dahomean king’s secret agents
aje — Yoruba, the power Olodumare gave to Oshun; a being with such power
ajo mmuo — Igbo, evil spirits, alu (abomination) against Ani — the Earth Deity
Akan — ethnic group in what is now Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
akewi — Yoruba, storyteller, griot
Allahu akbar — God is great in Farsi
alu — Igbo, abominations
Ani — Igbo, the Earth Deity
ashe — English transliteration of Yoruba term, the power to make things be
ASM — Assistant Stage Manager
ausgezeichnet — German, outstanding, wonderful
Babalawo — Yoruba, father of mysteries, an Ifa diviner
Bambara or Bamana — an African people in Mali
basiaba — Bambara or Bamana, mud cloth pattern for young women
Béhanzin — king of Dahomey
bògò — Bambara or Bamana for earth or mud
bògòlan — Bambara or Bamana for mud cloth
bògòlanfini — Bambara or Bamana for mud cloth
ce farin jala — Bambara or Bamana, a brave man’s belt
chi — the Igbo personal life force
Eshu — English transliteration of Yoruba term, an orisha, master of crossroads, life and death, master of uncertainty, weaver of the cosmic interface
fini — Bambara or Bamana for cloth
Flugzeuge im Bauch — German, airplanes in the stomach, butterflies, nerves
Fon — ruling ethnic group in Dahomey
gawlo — griot in Fula
gbeto — Fon, elephant huntress, sharp shooter
gilidinehuyi — Cherokee for lightning
Hau ab, Arschloch — German, Beat it, asshole
ide Ifa — Yoruba, beaded bracelet warn by Babalawo
Ifa — divination wisdom of the Yoruba
Igbo — ethnic group in what is now Nigeria
Iyalawo — Yoruba, a priestess of Ifa, a mother of secrets
Kannst du Deutsch? — German, Do you speak German?
Kanst du eine Fremdsprache? — German, Can you speak a foreign language?
kpojito — Fon, reign-mate of the king in Dahomey
kposi — Fon, literally leopard’s wives, sovereign’s highest ranking spouses
lan — Bambara or Bamana for with or by means of
logish — German, logical
maamajomboo — Mandinka, a masquerade
Maskókî — Seminole for Creek language
Mère d’eau — Mami Wata in French, mother of waters
minkisi — plural of nkisi
mino — Fon, our mothers — the warrior wives of the king
Mist — German, crap, dung
mojo — prayer in a bag
natürlich — German, of course, naturally
nkisi — Kikongo, spirit or vessel of spiritual forces from the land of the dead.
Nne mmiri — Igbo, water goddess
nzumbe — Mbunde word for animated corpse, zombie
odu Ifa — Yoruba, the bag of wisdom that Oludumare gave to the orisha
Ohrwurm — German, a tune, a saying that is stuck in your mind
Olodumare — Yoruba, the supreme being, the creator
Omotaiyelolu — Yoruba, the twin who excels
orisha — English transliteration of Yoruba term, Yoruba deities, ancestors, forces of nature, cosmic deities
Osanyin — Yoruba deity of herbalistic medicine
Oshoosi — Yoruba deity of hunters, the archer
Oshun — Yoruba water deity, akin to Mami Wata
Ouidah — capital, royal city of Dahomey
oun — Yoruba, he or she
sehr gut — German, very good
Sie kann ein bißchen. Hörst du das nicht? — German, She speaks a little. Can’t you tell?
Verdammt — German, Damn it!
vodun — Fon religion related to Yoruba Orisha worship (voodoo)
Yemoja — Yoruba water deity, akin to Mami Wata
Biography
Andrea Hairston is the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre and has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for over thirty-five years. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, and on Public Radio and Television. She has received many playwriting and directing awards, including a NEA Grant to Playwrights, a Rockefeller/NEA Grant for New Works, and a Ford Foundation Grant to collaborate with Senegalese Master Drummer Massamba Diop. Since 1997, her plays produced by Chrysalis Theatre have been sf plays. Archangels of Funk, a sf theatre jam, garnered her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. Her latest play, Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre, appears in Geek Theater—an anthology of science fiction and fantasy plays published by Underwords Press.
Ms. Hairston has published critical essays on Octavia Butler, speculative theatre and film, and popular culture. In 2011, she received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for contributions to the scholarship and criticism of the fantastic. Lonely Stardust: Two Plays, a Speech, and Eight Essays was published by Aqueduct Press.
“Griots of the Galaxy,” a short story, appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. Ms. Hairston’s novels include Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Tiptree Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award, and Mindscape, shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick and Tiptree Awards, and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. Both novels were published by Aqueduct Press.
In her spare time she is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. She bikes at night year round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.
Table of Contents
Public Display
Dedication to The Chronicles
CHRONICLES 1: Dahomey, West Africa, 1892 —Stillpoint
Guardians and Wanderers
CHRONICLES 2: Dahomey, West Africa, 1892 —Spirit Guides
Chicken Fun for All
CHRONICLES 3: Word Dance
Remembering
Notes (#1) to the Current Edition of the Earth Chronicles, December 1984
CHRONICLES 4: Dahomey, West Africa, 1892 —Books
CHRONICLES 5: Dahomey, West Africa, 1892 —Blood Oath
Mojo Working
Letter from Iris Phipps, December 1984
Notes (#2) to the Current Edition of the Earth Chronicles, December 1984
CHRONICLES 6: Dahomey, West Africa, 1893 �
��Return
CHRONICLES 7: Dahomey, West Africa, 1893 —Pretty Knots
CHRONICLES 8: Dahomey, West Africa, 1893 —New Life
Pizza and Spells
Theatre CPR
Acknowledgment for Temporal Gaps, February 1987
Urban Fantasy
Untying Knots
Letter from Iris Phipps, February 1987
Notes (#3) to the Current Edition of the Earth Chronicles, February 1987
CHRONICLES 9: Coast of Dahomey, 1893 —Demons
Fire in the Eyes
CHRONICLES 10: Coast of Dahomey, 1893 —Masquerades
CHRONICLES 11: Coast of Dahomey, 1893 — Fire from Elsewhere
Snowballs in Haiti
Glass Slippers and Golden Angels
Perspicacious and Intrepid
CHRONICLES 12: Atlantic Ocean, 1893 —Monsters on the High Seas
CHRONICLES 13: Atlantic Ocean, 1893 — Light Show
Roller Coaster Ride
CHRONICLES 14: Atlantic Ocean, 1893 —Warrior Dances
CHRONICLES 15: Atlantic Ocean, 1893 —The Color of Love
Contact Improvisation
CHRONICLES 16: Atlantic Ocean, 1893 —Dragon Slayer
Homeless Eshu
Hospital Blues
Not Over Yet
Born Two
CHRONICLES 17: Ariel and Abla
CHRONICLES 18a: Paris Fables — Océane and the Aje
Baron of Badass
CHRONICLES 18b: Paris Fables — Oshun’s Comb
Hormones
CHRONICLES 18c: Paris Fables — Spirit Houses
The Iron Lady
CHRONICLES 18d: Paris Fables — Masquerade
CHRONICLES 18e: Paris Fables — River Pirates
Secret Society Pact
Hillbillies and Country Gals
Hearing Spirits from the Other Shore
Ear Worm
CHRONICLES 19: Carnival Visions
Hold All Of Me
Eleven (On a Scale from Three to Fourteen)
CHRONICLES 20: Father of Mysteries
Who Do You Mean To Be?
More Good News
CHRONICLES 21: American Dreams
Trying Times
Sweet Revenge
Note from Sekou, December 9, 1984
Bathroom Refuge
CHRONICLES 22: Chicago Dreamland
Heroes
Secret Stash
CHRONICLES 23: Chicago Nightmare
AC-DC
Flying
Chronicles 24: Tree of Forgetfulness
Knife Boy
CHRONICLES 25: Flash Flood
Mallemaroking
Danger Fans
Hoodoo Spell #7b
CHRONICLES 26: Final Entry — Defying Gravity
What Do We Do?
Black Bird Take My Spirit High
Glossary
Biography