Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

VII: something dead

Ch. 7: Something Dead

"What do you mean by that?" Mara barked. "Why the hell not?" Kiki. She needed to meet up with Kiki.

"Whoa, don't kill the messenger," Mirtes answered. She hooked the pager on her belt again. "Commander Carlos said that there's only one tunnel in your city, and it's sitting on top of a lake infested with mermaids...and police officers, for some reason." She gave Tai a pointed look.

"I'm innocent this time," Tai whispered.

"Can't you take me through another tunnel? Does it need to be that one?"

Mirtes glanced at Tai. The latter scratched the back of their neck and said, "We could take you to Presidente Venceslau instead, but it's the middle of the night in the flesh world, Mara—and Saint Lucrécia is in that empty nothingness close to the Rosana reservoir, in Paraná. Unless we walk...I don't know, one hundred kilometers, I don't think we can get you home right now."

"Can we hire Lulu to take us there?" Mirtes asked in a whisper. "It's expensive, but I have some gold saved."

"She would never take us anywhere near the flesh police," Godo answered.

Mara let out a huff and leaned against the wall at her back. The knot in her throat tightened. Maybe she could walk home. How much time would it take to walk one hundred kilometers?

"Hey," Tai murmured. Their hand rested on her arm; Mara never thought their voice could sound so sweet. "It's okay. Remember I told you that time the flesh world passes much slower? Every hour in Saint Lucrécia means nine hours and something in here, so even if you stay the whole day in the HQ, you might come back..."—they paused for a heartbeat—"around seven in the morning. We just can't cross right now."

"So we'll need to wait," Mara said.

Tai patted her arm and chuckled. She didn't offer any resistance when they tugged her a step closer—not close, not yet, just closer—and patted her back.

"It won't be that bad, Mara," Godo said. "It's a big HQ."

"Okay, it's decided." Mirtes placed her hands on her hips and smiled. "We'll give Mara a tour."

"After a bath," Tai added in a teasing tone. "We both need it."

***

Mara put on her past-self clothes—an elegant combination of too-tight black pants and a white dress shirt with a faux leather harness—and walked out of the public bath. Like her room, those clothes were a sterile, cold, and serious thing that in nothing resembled her real self.

At least they were clean.

She found Mirtes, Tai, and Godo sharing a melon-sized bowl of ice cream in a corner of the place, sitting at a small round table covered with graffiti.

"It's like a thermal bath in there," Mara said. "It's the best I feel in months." Kiki would've loved that place too.

There was a moment of silence as she stood there, watching them and being watched in turn.

Tai choked and gave a few hard slaps on their chest, then pointed at the towel around their own head. "I'm clean and perfumed too. Now we're both not stinking."

Mara smiled. Her problems still weighed on her shoulders, but there wasn't much she could do right now, was there? Mara sat beside Tai and plucked the spoon from their fingers. She would just have to swallow her tears and focus on something else.

"So...pistachio or something-else-green?" she said. Tai seemed like a good distraction.

"Pistachio, of course," Mirtes said.