Excerpt: Like Water Like Sea by Olumide Popoola

2. The Dancers

Everyone is fragile at thirteen. They were no exception. Two teenagers from different parts of Hackney, finding each other in the same neighbourhood. Their friendship had an abrupt start, sudden and weird. Melvin had just moved into a three-bedroom flat with his parents and brother Ben. Ben was ten years older and not interested in helping Melvin settle into a new area, school, or anything really. He had returned from university because he didn’t feel like finishing the degree in computer science he had started. He was deferring for as long as he could. Most days Ben spent at his girlfriend’s house. Melvin was lonely. The first days at the new school had turned out to be okay but he didn’t have anyone to spend the afternoons with. He was waiting for an opportunity, something to pull him into this new place. He would grab the chance, any chance, as soon as it presented itself.

Only a couple of days into his second week at the new school it came, an opportunity. It came as Johari. Melvin was at the local park, which he had seen from the window of their new flat. There was a lot going on. A small workout area with green-painted outdoor gym equipment. Playgrounds for younger and older kids. The designated bench for those who wanted to enjoy cheap wine and cider at any time of the day. He didn’t quite know where to walk to and stood on a patch of grass to orient himself.

‘Are you new?’

The girl in front of him had long braids that fell out under a baseball cap. Her jeans were very low. Melvin nodded. He looked at her shoulder where her jumper had slid off.

‘Are you doing anything right now?’ she continued.

He shook his head.

Her eyes were hard to make out as the sun was shining on her face.

She said, ‘Come,’ and started to walk, not checking whether Melvin would follow. ‘Johari, by the way,’ she continued with the briefest nod backwards as if she was throwing her name over her exposed shoulder. He could catch it if he felt like it. Or leave it. His choice.

‘Melvin,’ he replied, skipping a couple of paces to catch up with her. They stopped when she had led them to a small area behind bushes and trees.

Melvin wondered what they would be doing but before he could speculate Johari kicked off her shoes, stood still on the grass and lifted her head. A melody carried across from nearby.

‘Follow me,’ she said. ‘If you want to.’

She started to move her arms in the air, parallel to each other, fingers pointing upwards. Melvin stumbled behind her as she moved with the melody. There were so many steps he got dizzy. He stopped.

She said again, ‘Follow me, just do what I do.’

Melvin replied, ‘That’s okay, you go ahead,’ but she looked at him, paused for a moment, shook her head, and pulled him back behind her. He tried his best to mimic her movements. After the first song, there was a break. Johari pointed behind the small trees to the brick building.

‘They’re having dance classes there. I’m having them out here.’

‘And you know the steps?’ Melvin asked.

She laughed. It was the first time he heard Johari laugh. It started as a giggle, warm and low. Then she opened her mouth and the volume picked up until her head went back in sync with the sound and he could hear the laughter coming from her belly. It ended in a reversal, the giggle leaving with a loud exhale.

‘I have no clue what they do there but I like the music,’ she said, her belly still moving with amusement.

The steps were all hers.

It wasn’t a thing, being dancers. They never talked about the dancing. It was stress release. It was dealing with life and its fluctuations. Melvin knew this, even at thirteen. It was something that was useful, perhaps needed even, and on that first day they became friends. No elaborate sensing each other out, no questions about shared tastes. A simple ‘Come’ thrown behind her, and it was sealed. The right invitation at the right time. The right person at the right spot to invite on a random day. That is how depth announced itself. In the moments one could easily miss.

They weren’t the type of friends who talked about everything. They were the type where Melvin followed and Johari stumbled ahead of him, looking back once in a while with a question on her face. Where are we going?

That summer they met in that hidden part of the park and soaked up the music and fell into the dried-up grass laughing. There wasn’t a lot of grace to their steps. Most of the time they were huffing and puffing, their thoughts locked away from each other. By the end of the summer, they knew details about each other’s lives. Not many, but some. What they didn’t know was how the other lived, who they lived with, what their lives were like, outside of their spot in the park. Sometimes Johari brought a couple of other kids from her school with her, usually boys that were interested in her. They would join in, jumping about when the music came on. These boys laughed louder and fell into the grass more than Melvin and Johari did. They didn’t take it seriously. Melvin smiled because it was ridiculous. This weird putting their bodies together in different ways without knowing anything about it. And in the park, for everyone to see. It was so weird. But it was something Johari liked to do. And they liked her.

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