Cranberry Clairvoyant (Azealia Banks Story)

Thing 1 and...Thing 2?

My mother used to tell me that the only thing we are promised in life is death.

It seemed as though even that wasn’t promised. Who was making these promises anyway? My mind, my hidden ability to see the future, promised me that the boys were going to die, yet they claimed I was “dreaming”.

Maybe I was just insane.

The ship’s air conditioning needed to be repaired, so far now we all boiled in the heat whilst floating through a humid part of the sea. As the temperature rose, so did our tempers. Milan couldn’t stay put for more than a few seconds, hopping throughout the ship and snapping at whoever dared to approach her, especially Ezekiel and Darrius.

Ezekiel and Darrius.

Once again I was on the deck, this time sitting quietly in a chair instead of leaning over the rail. No matter how I tried to twist and wrap my mind around it, Darrius’ idea didn’t make sense.

I wasn’t dreaming!

I couldn’t be!

If I was dreaming, that had to have meant that the dream had started since I received the messages. I never dreamt of getting messages before, so that was a first. And then, if I was dreaming, I would have dreamt that the boys told me they would be attending the fair, which they did. That seemed a bit too accurate.

I groaned, reduced to a slump in my chair, and wished that my mind had an off-switch.

Right then, Milan materialized onto the deck, pouring a bottle of water over her face and frizzy hair. I was quick to feel my own hair, checking to see if it was in the same condition as my cousin’s. Indeed, it was. An unfulfilled puff of fair escaped my now gritted teeth; life couldn’t get any worse from here.

“What is wrong with that girl?” asked Destiny. I hadn’t even noticed when she came on the deck.

“What girl?” I asked.

“Milan; she’s acting like the world is going to end for a little heat.” I hadn’t noticed when Milan left either.

“What’s wrong, Azealia? You look like something is troubling you.” Destiny asked suddenly, coming to sit by me. I could feel my face heating up with embarrassment (or maybe it was just the heat); was it really that obvious?

“I’m just trying to separate dreams from reality,” I told her, looking out onto the still waters of the sea and then up to the sweltering sun. “But I don’t know how.” I finished the statement at last. Destiny’s eyebrows furrowed and she tilted her head to peer at me through squinted eyes. She didn’t say anything, though; as a matter of fact she might have said something, but I couldn’t hear. I was too distracted by something to listen—no, not the cooking sun, but something else.

There has to be a way to do this, to find out the truth once and for all. It was at the tip of my tongue, but I tjust wouldn’t come to me. I thought of the detective shows I used to watch as a child, the methods they used to solve a case…

“Witnesses!” I shrieked. Before Destiny had the chance to question me, my feet sprung to life, propelling me to the tropical bar where Milan struggled to cool herself down.

“You’re a witness!”

“What are you talking about?” She asked, vigorously fanning herself.

“Milan, I need your help—desperately. What you say will help me determine whether I’m going crazy or not. Tell me if you recall any of this: you and I were searching for mermaids in the water. You thought you found one so you called me to see, but it was only Darrius and Ezekiel. Do you remember any of that?” I asked eagerly. A part of me thought I should prepare myself for disappointment, but I was too excited to possibly prove Darrius wrong.

“Yeah, I recall that. It happened just two, maybe three days ago.” My cousin told me. Relief sounded through my body, pushing a shaky sigh out of me. There was still one more question to ask.

“Did…did Ezekiel and Darrius get hurt at the fair, Mimi?”

“Nope,” she shook her head nonchalantly, “they were fine.”

Now I was back to square one.

Okay, maybe square two. I finally knew for sure that I wasn’t dreaming the day the message came, but I still had questions: since I did get the message, there were only two possibilities. One, my messages did not actually depict events that were bound to happen as I thought, or two, I managed to bend fate—or fate maybe even bent itself.

Either way, I needed to know.

Now my feet were taking me away from Milan and somewhere else: down a hallway, up one flight of stairs, down another hallway, and then in front of that door. The door was candy blue, the door-knocker cleverly shaped like a seashell. I used my fists to knock instead, pounding on the wood with all my might.

Darrius opened the door finally with an agitated expression, wearing only a white under-vest with a towel wrapped around him.

“What is it?” He demanded.

I pushed past him and into the room he shared with Ezekiel, who was missing. “I need to know.”

“What I need to know is what could be so urgent for you to knock on the door like you’re crazy. I was about going in the shower, you know.” Darrius replied after closing the door.

“I want the truth!” I yelled.

“Can’t you get ‘the truth’ (he used air-quotes) from Ezekiel when he comes back? He should be here any minute with our limeade.”

“I wasn’t dreaming, Darrius.” I abruptly confessed. He turned back and looked at me peculiarly.

“I know I wasn’t! Milan can prove it. That day when you and Zeke pretended to be mermaids, I knew something bad was going to happen to you at the fair, but I can’t tell you how. What I don’t know is why you’re alive right now. Listen, you can’t tell anyone this, but I frequently get messages that tell me what’s going to happen soon. I mean, my messages are always perfect representations of the near future. I couldn’t have been wrong this time. And in that case, how did I manage to save you? Did I even save you, then again? Was your presence in the Terror’s crash a dream? I—

“Azealia, stop!” Darrius interrupted my frustrated vent. “You’re right about everything.”

“I’m right?”

“Yes! Your messages are always right, and you weren’t dreaming.”

“How is that even possible?” I asked, my mind beginning to feel exhausted.

“You’re not the only one.” He paused to sit down. “Maybe you couldn’t save us, but I did…I have powers too, Azealia.”

“You have powers?” I whispered, afraid for someone else to hear.

“I can heal really well, and erase the memory of those I heal. See how that would work out? When I flew from the roller coaster, I wasn’t too badly hurt—just a few head bruises and a cut on my chest. I think my ankle was sprained, too. So I healed that up and then ran to find Ezekiel, but then I saw you looking at him. So I waited until you walked away to drag him out of the fire—he was already dead. I can bring people back to life, but it takes a great deal of energy. I did it anyway, brought him back to life, and then erased him memory. We immediately fled the scene, and he doesn’t remember a thing.”

I sat there, mouth ajar and eyes widened. I was astonished.

“You have powers…” I said. “How can you do those things?”

“I don’t know, it just comes naturally.”

I looked at Darrius very differently now, as more of a man than a boy. He had powers?

“When—

“Hey! Mami came to party with us?” Ezekiel suddenly asked as he entered the room, cutting me off.

“No, she was just leaving.” Darrius remarked. I took a few seconds, but I finally caught on and stood up to leave.

“We’ll talk another time,” Darrius whispered to me. I nodded and approached the door Ezekiel was holding open for me. After saying goodbye to him, I left that room feeling numb and confused.