Luna: New Moon

‘It’s not so easy, anzinho.’ She speaks Portuguese to her daughter.

‘It’s not fun here any more.’

‘Oh love, I know. But tell me, tell me; what have been doing?’

‘Well,’ says Luna Corta, holding up fingers to count off, ‘Yesterday, Madrinha Elis and I played animal dress-up. We got the printer and the network kept showing us things and we kept printing out animal clothes. I was an anteater. That’s an animal, from the other place. It’s got a big long nose that touches the ground. And a big long tail.’ She folds a finger, one transformation counted. ‘And I was a bird with a big … What’s that thing on their mouths?’

‘Beaks. They are their mouths, coracão.’

‘A beak and it was as long as my arm. And yellow and green.’

‘I think that’s a toucan.’

‘Yes.’ Another counted. ‘And a big cat with spots. Elis was a bird, like Tia Ariel’s familiar.’

‘Beijaflor,’ Lousika says.

‘Yes. She liked that one a lot. She asked me if I wanted to be a butterfly but a moth is really like a butterfly so I said she could be the butterfly, I think she liked that a lot too.’

‘Well, that sounds fun.’

‘Yessss,’ Luna concedes. ‘But … It’s always Madrinha Elis. I used to go to play dates in João, but Papai doesn’t let me do that now. He won’t let me see anyone who isn’t family.’

‘Oh my treasure. It’s only for a while.’

‘Like you said you would only go away for a while.’

‘I did, yes.’

‘You promised.’

‘I will come back, I promise.’

‘Can I come to Twé and see real animals, not dress-up ones?’

‘It’s not so easy, my love.’

‘Do you have ant-eaters? I really want to see ant-eaters.’

‘No, Luna, no ant-eaters.’

‘You could make me one. Real small, like Verity Mackenzie’s pet ferret.’

‘I don’t think so, Luna. Your know how your grandmother feels about having animals around Boa Vista.’

‘Daddy’s been shouting a lot. I hear him. From my special place. Shouting and angry.’

‘It’s not you, Luna. Believe me. It’s not me either, this time.’ Lousika Asamoah smiles but the smile puzzles Luna. Now Lousika’s smile vanishes and in its place she seems to be chewing her words as if they taste bad. ‘Luna; your tai-oko Rachel …’

‘She’s gone.’

‘Gone?’

‘Gone to Heaven. Except there is no Heaven. Just the Zabbaleen who take you away and grind you down to powder and give you to AKA to feed to the plants.’

‘Luna! That’s a terrible thing to say.’

‘Helen de Braga believes in Heaven but I think it’s a silly thing. I’ve seen the Zabbaleen.’

‘Luna, Rachel …’

‘Dead dead dead dead dead. I know. That’s why Daddy is upset. That’s why he’s shouting and smashing things.’

‘He’s smashing things?’

‘Everything. Then he prints it out new and smashes it up again. Are you all right, Mamãe?’

‘I’ll talk to Rafa – your daddy.’

‘Does that mean you’re coming back?’

‘Oh Luna, I wish I could.’

‘So when will I see you?’

‘It’s Vo Adriana’s birthday at the end of the lune,’ Lousika says.

Luna’s face brightens like noon. ‘Oh yes!’

‘I’ll be here for that. I promise. I will see you, Luna. Love you.’ Lousika Asamoah blows a kiss. Luna leans forward to place her lips on her virtual mother’s face.

‘Bye Mamãe.’

Lousika Asamoah unfolds Luna into moth form. The familiar returns to its ordained place above Luna Corta’s left shoulder. As she twists and twines back along the twisty path through the bamboo, Luna becomes aware of a change in the the air, a humidity, and a noise. The gardeners have completed their tasks and turned the cascades on again. Water drips, tears, gushes, then torrents from the eyes and lips of the orixas. Boa Vista is filled with the gleeful rush of playing waters.

The ball bends. It’s a beautiful fast arc curving in from right to left, from the height of a throwing hand at the apex of a dive to the bottom left corner of the goal-line. The goalkeeper never moves. It’s in the back of the net before Rafa hits the deck.

The elegance of LHL, what makes handball the beautiful game on the moon and an Olympic oddity on Earth, is its relationship with gravity. With and against. The size of the net, the dimensions of the court and the goal area constrain the advantages of lunar gravity, while gravity makes possible the tricks of spin and slice and ball bending that make spectators gasp at the magic skills of the top players.