Fresh Ink: An Anthology

The narrator tells a story to a group of children about a day when a “stranger” appeared at the Bochinche, a nightclub, where Ramses Garcia Garcia played the congas and Oba Ade Iku sang songs deriving from their cultural history.

A stranger approaches the stage, throwing two small packets onto it. Smoke billows from them as Ramses attempts to stop the stranger, but he loses the man as he heads toward Rosie. When the smoke clears, Rosie is fine, having hit the stranger with a bottle, but her notebook, in which she makes plans and writes designs, is gone.

As the man flees, Rosie and Ramses pursue him, with Rosie driving a “unimotor” and Ramses using a winged “jet pack” to fly through the skies. Ramses sees the man enter a tenement and lands to follow him. He breaks down the door to a room but finds it cluttered and empty. He sees a stack of stories on a desk and begins to read. The stories tell of monsters and are adapted from stories that Oba tells at the Bochinche. When Ramses tries to stand and leave, he finds that two tentacles have wrapped themselves around his ankles. He attempts to use a machete to cut himself free but is stopped by the arrival of the stranger, who holds a gun to his face.