Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy

Ms. Lena brings the children to her juke joint. She realizes that JP is a Seer, an Unremarkable with the rare ability to see Remarkables. The boy is relieved to learn that the strange occurrences he’s seen all his life are real. Nic tells Ms. Lena and JP everything about her kidnapping, the Guardians, and the Msaidizi. Finding the weapon would clear Calvin’s name, but Nic has mixed feelings about her father expecting her help after he hid the truth from her. Ms. Lena warns her that she needs to help him if she wants to find out why he took her: “For the real bad crimes, LORE erases a criminal’s memories, so that person can start anew” (112). Ms. Lena tells the children that the Msaidizi will bear the Mark of Eden, an ancient symbol of a tree. She’s heard rumors that the weapon is in New Orleans. Alex doesn’t want to go because he hates the idea of worrying his mother, but Nic convinces him that they need to clear Zoe’s name, too. JP enthusiastically agrees to go to New Orleans because he loves “beignets and po’boys and gumbo and pralines” (116).

The Guardian Force comes to the juke joint, but an Aziza named Ms. Sadie holds them off. Ms. Lena leads the children through a secret door in her office and down a staircase. The Underground Railroad station comes to life as she sings, “I’m gonna keep on walking, keep on talking, marching into free-dom land” (119). Alex is astonished to see a small locomotive on the tracks because LORE shut down access to the railroad during the war on Roho. Ms. Lena explains that LORE only closed the routes to Remarkable cities and that exiles still use the railroad. She tells the children that LORE’s main purpose used to be freeing enslaved Remarkables and Unremarkables. The Underground Railroad they studied in Unremarkable history textbooks was named after the literal, Remarkable one. The children board a sentient locomotive named Bertha that is outfitted with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Nic asks Ms. Lena about what happened on her birthday, but the Visionary still doesn’t understand how the girl had a vision. She tells Nic, “You’re way more powerful than you think, Nichole Blake. Way more powerful” (123). She bids the children goodbye and wishes them luck.

During the train ride to New Orleans, JP encourages Nic and suggests that they consult the Stevie James books for clues about the Msaidizi. Alex scoffs at the idea that the stories will be any help. While Ty believes that he is the Chosen One and that the real Manowari has yet to appear, many Manifestors think that Roho was the Manowari and that Ty failed. Roho destroyed six of the 12 LORE cities, and the twins’ paternal grandfather, Dr. Blake, stopped him in the end, not Ty. Alex opens up about not having any real friends outside his family because his grandmother is president, and Nic listens longingly to his descriptions of weekly Sunday dinners with a large gathering of relatives. JP talks about his grief for his late sister, Leah, and Alex tells him that there’s nothing wrong with crying because it shows how much he loves the person he lost. When the train stops in New Orleans, a vampire named Mack threatens to drink the children’s blood. A mysterious woman named Dee Dee scares him away and offers to help the trio find the Msaidizi.

Dee Dee brings the children to her home in the French Quarter, and they’re startled to see that she has haints for servants. Dee Dee explains, “Technically, they work for my daddy” (136). Nic has never seen a Remarkable with a black Glow before, but Dee Dee declines to explain. While Cocoa happily curls up in the woman’s lap, Dee Dee reveals that the scavengers told LORE that the twins have the Msaidizi and that they kidnapped JP. She offers to summon the ghost of High John, who has a connection to the Msaidizi, if they reclaim her conjure root from Hairy Man Junior. A haint named Walter takes the children into the swamp on an airboat. Walter was lynched 100 years ago. JP reacts with quiet sadness while Alex is incredulous and horrified: “Why did that stuff happen to Black people? Why does it happen? Can’t somebody stop it?” (146). Nic answers that Manifestors could help, and she resolves to help Unremarkables once she learns how to use the Gift, no matter what LORE says.

Walter takes the children to Hairy Man Junior’s shack, which is full of crosses and statues of angels. Nic locates the conjure root in the kitchen, and Cocoa finds Hairy Man Junior, who disguised himself as a rat. Hairy Man Junior threatens to eat the children, but Nic tricks him into turning into a succession of animals by poking at his pride. Last, he turns into a minnow and flails about helplessly on dry land. The children return to the airboat with the conjure root, and Nic releases the minnow into the swamp. Alligators pursue Hairy Man Junior back to his shack, and the ramshackle structure collapses into the swamp.

JP and Alex want to see if Hairy Man Junior is all right, but Nic reminds them that he threatened to eat them. When Nic gives Dee Dee the conjure root, the woman’s tongue becomes forked, and wails and flames pour out from the door to her basement. Nic realizes that Dee Dee is the Devil’s daughter. High John was an African prince sold into slavery in America who offered other enslaved people hope through “his prophecies about freedom and his stories about the legendary tricks he’d pull on slave masters” (162). Dee Dee summons High John, but he can’t tell them where the Msaidizi is because it’s protected by a powerful juju. He last saw the weapon about 10 years ago, and it was in the possession of a short, plump person with the Mark of Eden tattooed on their hand.

Dee Dee wants to bring her beloved back to life, and she needs a soul to do so. She attacks the children and casts an illusion on her home, turning it into an infernal, labyrinthine structure. Dee Dee tries to lure Nic with promises to reveal the truth that her father hid from her: “Don’t you wonder why your father ran off with you? The answer lies in the prophecy, my dear” (168). Next, Dee Dee tries to lure Alex by telling him that his sister doesn’t care about his feelings and isn’t a real Manifestor. Skeletal hands drag Nic toward the basement, but JP bursts into the room with an improvised cross made from silverware and shouts Jesus’s name, which weakens Dee Dee enough for Alex to bind her with a spell. Binding Dee Dee frees the haints, but it also angers her father. The children dash outside moments before the Devil’s wrath causes the house to burst into flames.

JP sees one of the Guardian Force’s aircraft searching the city, and the children hurry back to Bertha. Nic asks the train to take them somewhere safe. JP is excited that being a Seer allows him to look through Remarkables’ illusions, and her best friend’s power makes Nic feel even worse about her inability to use the Gift. A news bulletin informs the children that the Guardians know they were at the home of the Devil’s daughter and that the charges against Zoe have been dropped. The Devil sends a demon to control a member of the Council of Elders, Aloysius Evergreen. The demon makes him call for the children’s apprehension and declare that Calvin’s memories and Gift should be taken from him.

JP remains optimistic about their odds of success, and he tells Nic that he chooses to be hopeful because of his sister, Leah, who died of leukemia: “[S]he told me, ‘Things don’t always go the way we hope, li’l bro, but they’ve got a way of working out’” (185). While Alex is out of earshot, Nic voices her concern that her brother doesn’t like her. JP suggests that neither Alex nor Nic is what the other imagined in a sibling but that they can choose to love each other as they are. Bertha brings the children to Someplace Safe, a museum about the Underground Railroad.