I lie in my bed, wide awake, listening to the faint sound of drums coming from Madrina’s basement. Tonight is one of her bembé ceremonies to celebrate some of her godchildren. An orisha will be called down tonight, and it will probably be Ochún. I slip out of my bed and tiptoe barefoot to the front door. I turn the lock open as silently as I can and make my way down to the basement.
Madrina grins at me as I walk down the crooked wooden stairs. It’s cool and damp down here—the heat of summer held at bay. The room is crowded tonight with men and women from the neighborhood—some with their heads wrapped with white fabric like Madrina. They all smile when they see me. I recognize them from some of Madrina’s consultations, and I know all their business. I find a spot in the corner to listen to the musicians build up the tempo so the spirits can get called down.
Bobbito is the master drummer for the ceremony. He sits on a folding chair with the huge bembé drum between his legs. He’s bald, but he still wears a yellow bandanna on his head where sweat gathers along the edge. Next to him is the second drummer, Manny, a shorter man with a mustache so thick, his lips are invisible. Manny wears his yellow bandanna around his neck, and he’s always in a white tank top, no matter how cold it is outside. And Wayne is Papi’s good friend from way back in elementary school. These drummers have known me since I was a baby. And when I come down from upstairs, they always call me to dance to the drums. They call me the daughter of Ochún.
“Come sit near me. Don’t hide,” Madrina calls out to me.
She pulls a wooden stool close to her. She’s pushed her consultation table into a corner, and on it are a half dozen yellow candles with their bright dancing flames. Her face glows a rich golden brown against her colorful beads and white head scarf.
Madrina can probably read it all over my face that I need to talk. “I’m worried about Janae, Madrina,” I say as I sit down. “That boy broke her heart.”
“Ah, sí. But what about your heart, Zuri Luz?” she says.
Madrina takes a cigar and lights it from one of the candles. She brings it to her red lips and pulls deep. When she lets out the smoke, it swirls and dances over all the candles as if performing for Ochún too.
“This isn’t about me. Madrina, Janae was crying over some boy she just met.”
“Who? The investor’s son across the street? That’s not just some boy, Zuri. He is a rich and charming boy. And very handsome, don’t you think? All the fine things that are meant to seduce women.” She inhales and exhales the sweet dancing smoke. “Do you think you are so different?”
I roll my eyes hard at that one. “Please, Madrina. Ain’t nobody seducing me. And if someone is trying to get with me like that, then he can go ’head with his stank self.” But my mind drifts to Warren and to Darius.
Madrina looks at me dead-on with a smirk. Bobbito is drumming a solo, and more people are trickling in. These things don’t start until a little bit after midnight and some of these people work in the morning, including Madrina, who sometimes takes clients as soon as the bembé is over.
“Dance with us tonight, Zuri.” Madrina squeezes my hand and I nod. Dancing in a bembé is something I’ve done since I was a little girl. The drumming sounds good, and so does Madrina’s singing. I love feeling the beat of the drums in my body and letting go of everything as I dance.
I’m not dressed for this, but Madrina always has a wide, flowing white skirt for any newcomers to these ceremonies. So I pull one over my pajamas and it reaches my ankles. I dance barefoot so that I’m closer to the ground, closer to los antepasados, as Madrina says. There’s also a pile of fabric for anyone to use to wrap their heads. Madrina says it’s where the orishas enter. Tonight, it’s Ochún who’s supposed to fill our heads with thoughts and dreams of beautiful sparkling things, pretty faces, soft touches, warm hugs, tender kisses, and deep connections. So I wrap my head with plain white fabric because I want this Ochún out.
Bobbito, Manny, and Wayne find a groove; then in comes Madrina’s bellowing song about Ochún, the Santería river goddess of love. And I begin to move like the water.
Dance of the River Goddess
if oceans are the wombs of the world
then I am the interconnecting
umbilical cord with deep love flowing
like the swirling hems of dresses
in dances for you goddess
and instead of sea salt I’m sprinkled
with golden dust to shimmer like the sun
because it loves me back even while beating
on my wrapped head like a tambora
and I am born hot and thirsty
panting at the edge of a river
wanting to submerge my head deep
within the bottom of the clear cool water
“Wépa!” Madrina sings.
I’m grinning from ear to ear now, because I didn’t realize just how much I love dancing to drumbeat rhythms that pull at my core. I take the hem of my wide skirt with both hands and move it about like a wave. And with my swirling and flowing skirt and dancing body, I form a river. The drumming ebbs and flows, comes to a crescendo before stopping completely; then I am stagnant water again. Like all those tears I hold in and never let flow.
Everyone claps, and some even throw dollar bills at me. An offering.
“I hope this won’t be your last dance, Zuri, daughter of Ochún,” Madrina says, clasping her hands and smiling brightly at me.
Something brand-new stirs inside and all around me, as if I’ve been turned inside out. I immediately know that this was more than just a dance, and maybe Madrina was right all along. Maybe there is something real in these spirits.
There’s a quiet humming of praise for Madrina. “Gracias, Madrina, gracias!”
I leave the basement. With my dollars bills in hand and Madrina’s skirt still around my waist, I race up the stairs, past my apartment, and quietly slip up to the roof. My lungs are still reaching for the night air as the orishas embrace me.
Thirteen
WARREN BRINGS FLOWERS to my door. Papi isn’t here to see him, and Mama and my sisters are visiting with neighbors down the block. Part of me wants to rush him away from here so I don’t have to answer to my parents, but I know I need to introduce him to Mama and Papi at some point.
I take my favorite spot on the steps after he hands me the colorful bouquet I recognize from the Key Food on Broadway. So I side-eye him to let him know that game recognizes game. He can’t play a playa.
“What? You don’t like them?” he asks, trying to hold in a laugh.
“I just thought the flowers from the Key Food on Broadway were for the people on their way to Wyckoff Hospital,” I say.
“Well, obviously I wasn’t on my way to the hospital. Aren’t you gonna smell them?” Warren asks. He’s kind of dressed up with a button-down shirt, but not a Darius and Ainsley kind of dressed up. He looks smooth with a little bit of edge—crisp shirt, jeans, and almost-new sneakers. His fresh haircut makes the dimple on his cheek stand out.
I sniff the flowers and shake my head.
“You ever had a guy give you flowers before?” he asks. His phone keeps buzzing in his pocket, and he pulls it out to silence it. I see the name Alana before he shuts it off.
I give him a look. “Don’t pat yourself on the back just yet, Warren. Flowers are cool, but we’re still just chillin’.”
He laughs. “A’ight, ZZ. Now, let’s get off this block and chill somewhere else.”
“How ’bout we stay right here,” I say while looking up and down the block for any sign of Mama.
“Aren’t you gonna get in trouble?” he asks.
“I’ll get in trouble if we keep going out and you never meet my parents.”
“Oh. So we’re going out now?”
“I mean, literally going out. Like, leaving the neighborhood. My parents wanna know who I be rollin’ with. And since you’re from around here, maybe they already know your parents.”
He laughs. “I doubt it. My mother and your mother were definitely not in the same circles.”
“How about your father?” I ask.
“He’s not from around here.”
“Lemme guess. Locked up? Second family? Or maybe your mother was the side chick.”
“Oh, I see you’ve already put me into a box and wrapped me in newspaper. And I’m the latest headline: ‘Black Teen Boy from the Projects with Absentee Father Makes It into New York City’s Top Private School,’” he says.