The Icarus Girl

Jess wakes in the middle of the night to see TillyTilly surrounded by Jess’s mother’s tea lights and the portrait of the long-armed woman from the Boys’ Quarters, but the items quickly vanish.

A few days later, Siobhan comes over. Siobhan asks whether she can meet TillyTilly. Jess says that TillyTilly only comes out when she wants to. Jess hears TillyTilly outside the bedroom door. TillyTilly says that Siobhan can’t see her, and Jess realizes that Siobhan can’t hear TillyTilly’s voice. Jess convinces TillyTilly to come into the room, but only once Siobhan turns around and covers her eyes with her hands. TillyTilly opens and shuts the bedroom door. Siobhan, her eyes covered, asks whether it was Jess shutting the door. Siobhan demands that Jess put her hand on Siobhan’s head, and that TillyTilly open and shut the door again. TillyTilly opens the door and slams it shut. Siobhan asks TillyTilly to come sit next to her. TillyTilly begins walking in circles around Siobhan and Jess, Siobhan’s eyes still closed and Jess’s hand still on Siobhan’s head. Siobhan feels something cold and can tell that TillyTilly is getting closer to her. Siobhan can also tell that TillyTilly is bad, and she suddenly fears for Jess’s safety. Terrified, Siobhan calls out, causing TillyTilly to back away and disappear. Siobhan calls her father to come pick her up.

The next day, Dr. McKenzie calls, and Jess realizes Siobhan must have told him about TillyTilly even though she promised not to. Jess’s mother takes Jess over to see Dr. McKenzie. He tries to explain that TillyTilly is imaginary and implies that he believes that TillyTilly might be an alter-ego, or that Jess might have a personality disorder. Dr. McKenzie and Jess’s mother tell Jess that she doesn’t have to be friends with TillyTilly if she doesn’t want to, and she can make TillyTilly disappear. Jess doesn’t believe them and is angry at Siobhan for breaking her promise.

Jess’s ninth birthday is coming up in July, during the summer break. Jess’s mother asks Jess if she wants to go to Nigeria for her birthday. Jess wonders whether her grandfather will be angry at her for all the trouble she has caused over the past year, so she doesn’t respond to her mother. Jess’s father confesses that he still feels sick and doesn’t want to travel anywhere. At night, TillyTilly continues to appear in Jess’s room, but Jess tries her best to ignore her. TillyTilly says that now she’ll have to get back at Siobhan for telling her father about TillyTilly.

Siobhan and Jess make up, and Siobhan comes over for a sleepover. Siobhan confesses that her father didn’t really want her to come over, but her mother convinced him that Jess was a nice girl. That night, Jess insists that she and Siobhan both sleep in Jess’s bed. Siobhan wakes up in the middle of the night and hears Jess calling to her from downstairs. Siobhan walks out of the bedroom and halfway down the staircase. Siobhan turns around and sees Jess at the top of the steps, and she wonders how Jess got upstairs so quickly. Siobhan sees another figure in the shape of a girl behind Jess. Something comes flying at Siobhan from the top of the stairs.

Siobhan falls down the stairs and badly cuts her neck on the banister. Dr. McKenzie arrives and takes Siobhan away in an ambulance. Jess’s mother asks Jess if she pushed Siobhan, but Jess can only repeat TillyTilly’s name.

Jess and her parents return to Nigeria right before Jess’s ninth birthday. When Jess arrives at her grandfather’s house, he takes her to his study to show her something. On his desk is a small wooden ibeji statue, meant to represent Fern. Jess is frightened by the statue. Jess’s grandfather asks Jess who told her about Fern. Jess tells him she can’t remember.

On the day of Jess’s birthday, her family sets up tables and chairs outside for the party. Jess sees TillyTilly under one of the tables. TillyTilly says that she got back at everyone who hurt Jess, and now it was time to swap. TillyTilly grabs Jess’s ankle, and Jess screams. Jess and TillyTilly both fall down, “but this time they didn’t crash against the earth as they had before—TillyTilly landed safely somewhere, and Jess just kept on flying. She’d shed her body as if it was some shell that the sea roars through” (317). Throughout the party, Jess’s grandfather looks at her strangely. Jess mother notes that “Jess’s voice did seem a little nasal” but “she was happy, at last” (318).

The next day, Jess’s mother is speaking to Jess’s aunts Funke and Biola in the kitchen when Jess’s cousin Bose comes into the room, claiming that Jess can speak Yoruba. Jess comes into the kitchen and speaks a few words of Yoruba. Jess’s mother is stunned but figures she must have picked up the language from her time in Nigeria. Overhearing the conversation, Jess’s grandfather comes into the room. Jess tells her grandfather in Yoruba to leave her alone. Jess’s grandfather angrily leaves the room and goes into his bedroom. Jess’s mother and father follow him, and Jess’s grandfather says he is taking Jess to a witch doctor. Jess’s father is furious. He refuses to let Jess see the witch doctor, unable to understand how Jess’s grandfather could be Christian but also want to visit a witch doctor. Jess’s mother finds Jess and states that she and Jess are going to stay with her friend Toyin in Lagos for a few days.

Toyin’s husband gets in a car crash on his way to Lagos with Jess and Jess’s mother. Jess’s father and grandfather arrive at the hospital. Jess’s mother is all right, but Jess is badly injured and lying motionless in a hospital bed. The doctor says that Jess might be okay, but she has been unconscious since the car crash. Jess’s grandfather pulls out Fern’s ibeji statue and places it in the corner of the hospital room to watch over Jess.

Jess finds herself trapped in the Bush, a sort of wilderness spirit world. For a while, Jess rides on the back of another girl who changes form often, sometimes appearing to look like Siobhan, though Jess knows it isn’t really her, and sometimes appearing as TillyTilly. When TillyTilly appears, Jess begs her to let them swap back. Eventually, Jess gets off the girl’s back and realizes it is Fern. Fern disappears. No longer afraid of TillyTilly, Jess tries to force her way through the Bush and back into her own body, ignoring TillyTilly’s protests. Finally, “Jessamy Harrison woke up and up and up” (334).