Under Water. Copyright © 2019 by J.L. Powers. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written consent from the publisher, except for brief quotations for reviews. For further information, write Cinco Puntos Press, 701 Texas Avenue, El Paso, TX 79901; or call 1-915-838-1625.
FIRST EDITION
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Powers, J. L. (Jessica Lynn), 1974- author.
Title: Under water / by J.L. Powers.
Description: First edition. | El Paso, Texas : Cinco Puntos Press, [2019] |
Sequel to: This thing called the future. | Summary: After her beloved grandmother’s death, seventeen-year-old Khosi is left with an empty house, her younger sister, and her promise to finish school but violence in Imbali may take even that.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018027161| ISBN 978-1-947627-03-1 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-947627-04-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-947627-05-5 (e-book)
Subjects: | CYAC: Coming of age—Fiction. | Healers—Fiction. | Sisters—Fiction. | Zulu (African people)—Fiction. | Blacks—South Africa—Fiction. | South Africa—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.P883443 Un 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018027161
Cover and book design by Antonio Castro H.
Cover photo by Izak de Vries. Capetown, South Africa.
For Dumisani Dube
brother and friend
1960-2017
CONTENTS
CHAPTER SIX: BREAKING PROMISES
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE PROBLEM OF JEALOUSY
CHAPTER EIGHT: AFRAID THINGS WILL CHANGE, AFRAID THEY’LL STAY THE SAME
CHAPTER NINE: MEDICINE OF A SORT
CHAPTER ELEVEN: WALKING THERE AND BACK AGAIN
CHAPTER TWELVE: A VOICE AS THIN AS THE SKY
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: PUTTING ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THUNDERSTORM
CHAPTER NINETEEN: JESUS ON MY TONGUE
CHAPTER TWENTY: CHOOSING THE POWERLESS
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: DO NOT EAT THE HAIR LIKE LICE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: DELIGHT IN HIS VOICE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: NOT SO SECRET SECRET
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: SEPARATED FROM THE HERD
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: THE RECKONING
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: THE END OF EVERYTHING
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: I’LL GET HER OUT OF THIS, MAMA
CHAPTER THIRTY: THE LIZARD WAS WRONG
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: MY OWN THREAT
CHAPTER ONE
THREE YEARS AGO
I don’t know how or when the amadlozi choose someone—if you are destined from birth or if, at some point when you are growing, they notice something, they point to it, they say, There, there, right there, that one—she is meant for us. She will be our voice to the people.
Chosen.
Chosen means you don’t choose. Somebody else chooses for you. In this case, all the people who come before you. Your ancestors. Your mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, all the greats backing up for all of time to the beginning of earth. They will not give up until you answer. And your answer must be “yes”