I jerked, confused and unsure what was going on.
“June?”
I knew that voice. “Elle?” I asked as I cracked my eyes open. My voice sounded rough.
“Nightmare?” she murmured, brushing some hair out of my eyes.
I felt sad, so that made sense. I nodded, my hair getting messed up against the pillow. Oops. Lift first, then nod.
“Sorry to hear.” She helped me sit up and finger combed my hair.
My eyes drifted her way and noticed she had sleepy eyes and sleepy clothes. “Woke you?”
“Yes. It’s okay.”
She glanced away. Anxious? Hm. More times? “How many?”
“Four. Four times.”
I pouted and looked down. “S’rry.”
“It’s okay. I’ll probably take a nap later,” she said, her lips curling into a small smile. “Are you moving your coins?”
“Nuh uh.”
Elle tilted her head, and I tilted mine too. I’m a parrot. Bock bock!
“Today is good.” Good? Numbers. High numbers, good good. “If you don’t feel like playing with your coins, then I can look after you. I don’t mind.”
“Yin-yang!” I happily chirped, half remembering something forgotten. “Please!”
She smiled. Not upside down. I was getting better at my words. I liked smiles—her smiles. They were pretty. “It’s nearly breakfast time anyway. May as well get up,” she said, holding out her hand.
I took it, thinking of walks to the park, and she gently tugged me to my feet and over to the dresser. My dresser, my Pally-anquin dresser! We were home again, and I didn’t miss our secure house. She searched through it for a moment before pulling out a pale blue shirtdress lined with buttons and grabbing my beret from where it laid on the dresser. “Yeah… I’m thinking extra cute today.”
“Extra?”
“Yes. Definitely.” She was all smiles, sleep forgotten. Pretty smiles. I couldn’t just say no to that pretty smile. Not that I wanted to. It could be fun to be cute! Before long, Elle had us both ready. She only wore a comfortable long-sleeved green tee and some blue jeans, and it was so Elle—she made them prettyful, just like her.
I twirled, and my dress swirled around my warm leggings, making me giggle. My stomach didn’t care for circles though, and it rumble dumbled. Oh wait, I knew what this was. “Hungers!”
“Yes, I thought you’d be hungry,” she said with a giggle of her own. She took my hand once more and led me out into the empty hall and down the stairs. Before long we were in the land of pots ‘n’ pans, smells ‘n’ noms, and we weren’t alone. The M’s were at the table when we arrived, and I cheerfully waved.
“Hi! Do you hunger two? No, not two—too. But you are two too.”
“June, are you not using your coins?” Masuyo asked. She had a smile—no wait, the other one—a frown on her face. Melanie was also frowny, and that was unfortunate. I liked my M’s and wanted them to smile.
“I’m having a good day,” Elle explained as she pulled out a chair for me, and I hopped into it with a smile. So nice! My Elle was the best. “She had nightmares all night, so I’m taking care of her today.” She pecked me on the cheek as she pushed the chair in, and my face got all hot ‘n’ bothered.
Melanie did her eyebrow thing. “I see. Is this sort of… trade going to be an on-going endeavor?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she danced around the kitchen, pulling out boxes and tubs and pouring their insides together. I watched wide-eyed and mystified, nearly bouncing in my chair with excitement. “I’ll ask her when she’s better.”
“You remember today is the fourth? She has her first appointment with Dr. Drovanch this afternoon.”
“All the better. They should see this new side of her.”
“That… is a fair point, Melanie,” Masuyo agreed, though she still looked unhappies.
My Elle carried a bowl, glass, and spoon to me, and I gasped out, “Snacklepop ‘n’ juice?! Thank you!”
My lips found their way to her cheek before she could pull away, and she got all red like I did. “You usually have these, silly.”
“Thank you,” I repeated firmly as my bowl crack snapped and pip popped. She was nice and should know that. Her smile got wider, and I nodded, satisfied she was aware of her awesometacularness.
I dug in because I was hungers, and Melanie drank some of her yucky brown water. “I… concede it may be beneficial for them to see it firsthand.”
Masuyo looked at her talker box and said a not nice word as she put it in her pocket and stood. “I should have left five minutes ago for coffee with Sabah. Got distracted.”
“Have fun playing with dolls!” I said around a mouthful of snackle goodness.
“Uh, June, we’re not going to be…” Masuyo started to say before trailing off, looking unsure how to proceed.
“Not playing with dolls?” I said, puzzled. Why would she go to a dollhouse and not play with dolls?
She chuckled nervously, which didn’t make sense because there was nothing wrong with liking dolls. “Let’s forget this topic, okay? I’ve gotta run!” She hurried out towards the front entrance, and I stared after her for a moment before shrugging and resuming chewing. I had to eat my popplesnacks before they got droopy. I kept scooping and scooping, and eventually I didn’t have any more pops to snackle. I still had milk though, so I made like a cat and sluuurped, which caused Melanie to leak air and Elle smile.
I smiled at Elle and asked, “Wanna go to the park for chirp chirps?”
“That would be lovely,” she agreed as she filled her spoon with some of her wheat pillows cereal. “Then lunch after?”
“Fugly’s!” I cheered.
“Actually, I thought we might go to Dick’s Deli. It’s near the park, and they have indoor seating to eat in,” she said, sounding kind of funny. I squinted at her, and she fidgeted and glanced away, her cheeks turning red again. Hm. Hm hm hmmm. This meant something, and its wordname was on the end of my taster, but I couldn’t find it.
I pondered a second more before deciding I didn’t need to understand. My Elle wanted to go, and that was what mattered. “Eating dicks sounds good!”
Elle dropped her spoon into her bowl with a splash of milk and burst into giggles, and Melanie coughed behind her brown water holder. I frowned. “Did I not talk correct…?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” she said with a mischievous smile. “I’m almost done eating. Let me finish and get my satchel, then we’ll head out, okay?”
----------------------------------------
The trees at the park had been an array of reds, oranges, and yellows, and everyone was bundled like us against the cold November air periodically buffeting the area. Elle had said we were in fall when I commented on them, but I had told her we weren’t sitting, not falling, so that didn’t make any sense. But now Elle was steering us down a street I hadn’t been on before, and the other pedestrians on the sidewalk almost universally ignored us beyond leaving enough room to pass by.
“Elle, I’m cooooold,” I complained, pulling my jacket a bit closer around me as another gust of wind blew past. “My teeth chitter chatter, clickity clatter! We there yet?”
“Not yet,” she replied, her lips quirking up just a bit, “but we’re only about a block and a half away. Think you can make it that far?”
“Nope!” I declared with confidence. I immediately threw my arms around her and pulled her into a hug that left her stumbling to account for my weight. “Gonna have to carry me.”
She laughed. “Is that so? Then I’m afraid we’re doomed.”
I gasped, appropriately horrified. “Doomed?”
“Doomed,” she affirmed with a solemn nod. She managed to maintain her solemn expression for several seconds before it crumbled into a wide grin in the face of my dismay. “C’mon, it’ll be warmer at the deli!”
“Well why didn’t you say so?!” I declared, trying for a serious tone but utterly failing right out the gate. “Shoo cold, shoo! We’re gonna go eat dicks!”
Elle burst into giggles just like she had this morning, and I considered that for a moment as we resumed walking. Saying that made Elle laugh twice. Laughing makes Elle smile, and Elle smiling makes me all warm inside. I don’t wanna be cold, so… I nodded to myself, having reached the logical conclusion. “Gonna eat dicks,” I repeated in a sing-song voice. “Gonna eat dicks! Gonna eat dick-dick-dickity-dicks!”
“June! Stop!” Several people were glancing our way with varying expressions, and Elle awkwardly waved their attention away and started pulling me forward quicker than we had been walking before. “You can’t keep saying that.”
I pondered that for a moment, silently mouthing the words. “I think I still can? Gotta try to know.”
“I meant you shouldn’t say it.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s embarrassing.”
Huh? I pulled back a bit, all puzzle pieces apart. “But it made you smile and laugh! I like it when you do that!”
It seemed Elle didn’t quite know what to make of that, and nothing more was said for a moment as we continued down the still windy street. Eventually, she replied, “What you’re saying, it’s… something that’s silly to say. When it’s just you and me or you’re with someone back home, it’s okay, but loudly saying it in public makes me embarrassed.”
I hummed as I considered that, swinging our clasped hands back and forth. Oh! Humming! “So… I can make you smile and laugh, but I gotta be like a mouse in the spirit house,” I said, nodding in understanding. I then leaned back in and started humming along to my dick song.
“That isn’t quite what I had in mind,” she said, her smile back again. “But you can have your fun.”
A minute later we reached the deli, and I was caught off guard by the presence of not one but rather two entrances. Elle moved unfalteringly to one door and held it open for me, and I stepped through, trusting she knew what was going on. Inside, I gaped at the beautiful interior, having not expected it at all. Rich, deep red paint coated the walls, and lamps that looked like sconces punctuated them, illuminating the deli without being overbearing. All the tables were made of a polished dark wood that looked real and neatly complimented the similarly dusky wood floors, and atop each table sat a mason jar with stubby red candles burning away inside. Off to the side, a neatly cut section of the wall was missing, and I could just make out from here rows of groceries on racks and glass cases filled with meat on the other side.
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“It’s not too much, is it?”
I turned and found Elle was watching me. She was smiling, but it wasn’t happy. Eyebrows pinched over too wide eyes and lips—what was the word? ‘Nur’ something. Nerd, nurse, neurology… Nervous, that was it!
“June?”
I wanted her to smile—to really smile—and if someone you like real smiles at you, then you’re supposed to real smile back, right?
“Nope!” I chirped, giving her my best smile. “I like it!” Most of the pinch went away. Some still stayed, and that made me a bit sad, but as the saying goes, count your good things.
Off to the side, a gentleman in a polo and slacks finished talking to the people at a table, tucked his notepad into the cloth belt around his waist, and started towards us. He looked funny, like he was thinking about being mean, but that didn’t make any sense. Elle was sweet, and all my bad was tucked away with the metal and the big sad.
“Hello, you two. You look a bit young to be out this early in the day.”
Elle turned her smile to him, and it was all wrong again. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I didn’t like it at all. “You’re not wrong, but it’s okay. I’ve got my GED, and I’m her nanny.”
His eyebrows popped up, and I found myself staring at them. “Nanny?”
“She’s—”
“Your eyebrows are funny,” I told him, smiling at them. I turned to Elle. See? This is the right smile! “His eyebrows are funny, Elle!”
“June, we don’t say that to people we don’t know,” she said, and there! There’s the smile I wanted! “I’m sure he didn’t appreciate that comment. What do you say?”
Something was off, but I couldn’t put my toucher on it, so I hummed as I tried to puzzle piece it.
“June, I asked you what you should say to the nice man?”
My stomach growled, and I had a light bulb. “I’d like a sandwich, please!”
“June…”
“But I’m hungers,” I definitely did not whine.
The man with the funny eyebrows and Elle exchanged a look, and she said, “Sorry, I only started working with her a few months ago, and I’m beginning to help her work on being better in public.”
“September!” I said with a nod. I remembered.
“Yes, that’s right,” Elle said with another smile, this one aimed at me. I beamed back. “We met in September. Would you like to ask,” she quickly glanced at the plate on the man’s polo, “Jonathan if we could have a table for two?”
“We’d like that please!” I babbled. “And a sandwich! Did I mention I hunger? My stomach said I do.”
“I… see,” the Jon-a-man replied as he grabbed two menus. He looked around for a few seconds then awkwardly waved towards an area with almost no one nearby, “Right this way.”
“Hold my hand, June,” Elle said as we moved to follow.
I didn’t need an excuse for that! “‘Kay!” We followed along, and Elle helped me into a seat at the table Jon-a-man laid the menus at.
“A server will be right out with you,” he said before hurrying away towards a doorway in the back.
Elle scooted her chair around so she was sitting almost next to me then picked up a menu and looked at it intently. “You wanted a sandwich?”
“Mhm! A big one with—” I gasped, my eyes going wide. “I’m in trouble!”
“You’re in trouble?”
“Forgot ‘bout my diet!” I moaned. “Now I’m gonna be fugly ‘cause of Fugly’s!”
“You’re not fat, and you’re certainly not fugly,” she assured me with a smile. It was a real one, and the sight of it stalled the horror mounting in my gut. She leaned in a bit closer and whispered, despite no one being around to hear, “Melanie makes us run too much for that.”
That was true. Melanie made us run a lot. I could zoom zoom fly, but she insisted it was good for my health, so I had to do it anyway.
“So… I can have a big one?”
“Absolutely.”
As it turned out, the person who eventually came over to see us from the back room wasn’t wearing a cloth belt, and he wore a button down shirt and tie instead of a polo. “Good afternoon, ladies. My name’s Rich, and I’m the manager here.”
Rich? But this is Dick’s! I thought all confluzzled. Wait! Rich’s a Dick, and Dick’s a Rich! What a re-dick-ulous nickname!
I burst into giggles, and Elle shot me an amused look before looking to Dick and saying, “Hello to you as well. Is something the matter?”
“Yes, I’m afraid. Jonathan mentioned you say you have your GED and are her nanny?” he responded with a look my way. “May I trouble you for some verification?”
Elle frowned but grabbed her satchel from where it hung on her chair, pulled it around, and began fishing in it. “I have a copy of my GED certificate—you’d be surprised how often my age gets me in trouble when I’m running errands—but I’m afraid I have nothing showing I’m June’s nanny.” She plucked a folded, slightly crinkled paper from the depths and handed it over. “I could give her mother a call, if that would suffice?”
He unfolded and examined the paper for a moment before handing it back to Elle. “That won’t be necessary, and I’m truly sorry for the intrusion. With how close we are to Arcadia, we regularly get students who skip out on what they should be doing to come over here. I cannot begin to tell you how many outlandish excuses I’ve heard.”
“Really? I went to Clarendon for a bit before I elected to get my GED, and I never heard about anyone doing that there. I would have thought Arcadia students would be even less likely to skip.”
“You’d think,” he said with a chuckle. “Personally, I suspect the students in the half-day program there call out sick to their internships in favor of a half day off, but that’s just me.”
My stomach was starting to get a bit too rumbly after our long time at the park, and I wasn’t following any of their chatter batter, so I abruptly asked, “‘Scuse me, Mr. Dick, sir? I want a sandwich. A big one with roast beef! And a coke!”
Elle’s lips twitched up a bit. “Sorry, Jonathan may have mentioned we’re working on her public skills,” she said to the manager before turning her attention to me. “His name is Rich, June, not Dick. And you don’t interrupt conversations or forget to use your magic word, right?”
“But this is Dick’s! Rich’s a Dick, and Dick’s a Rich! Is’a Nickle-name!”
“It’s honestly okay,” Dick said with a chuckle. “I don’t mind the nickname. I just go by Rich because my father, the owner, is Dick, and I don’t want to confuse anyone.”
“Ah, okay. Then June, how do you ask the nice man politely for food?”
“Oh, um… Can I please have a big sandwich with roast beef, Mr. Dick, sir? And a coke! Um, please and thanks!”
Dick was happy to get us our food quickly after that, and I gave him a big smile and a, “Thank you, Mr. Dick, sir!” when he came back with my sandwich. I thought he must have liked me, since he said my food was on the house for our trouble and because I had asked so nicely. I had asked nicely, just like Elle told me to, but I hadn’t expected all of that. I chattered a lot about whatever came to mind as we ate, and Elle mostly settled for responding to my questions, but eventually she quietly spoke up with a question I hadn’t expected.
“June? May I ask you something?” Elle quietly asked as I chewed the last bite of my sandwich. Her chicken salad was nearly done too, but she was pushing around the last bits of it with her fork instead of eating the rest.
“Mhm!” I hummed as I slurped up some of my coke. It was my second, which Elle had convinced me I was okay to have when she reminded me of our running again.
“I hope you don’t hate me for it, but…” She trailed off, not finishing the statement.
I tilted my head. “Hate?”
“Just… What do you… like about me?”
“Lots’a things,” I said with a nod.
The corners of her lips turned up a little bit at that. “May I know some?”
“Ooooooh! Well, I like your smiles. You’re all soft and pretty, and you’re really nice.”
“Is there… anything else?”
“Lots! You only asked to know some!” I said with a giggle, but my laughter died away quickly when I saw she looked upset. “Why’re you sad? I don’t want you to be sad!”
She didn’t say anything at first, and for a brief moment, the mason jar on the table began to twist. It stopped the moment it began though, and Elle’s hand clenched tightly around her fork as she closed her eyes.
“Exercises?” I nervously asked.
“Yes.”
I drank the rest of my coke as I waited, and as I slurped up the last dregs, I pouted a bit at the watered down flavor. They always got icky in the end.
Either she finished or else the slurping sound from my straw pulled Elle’s eyes open. There was something very, very sad in them that distressed me. “I… shouldn’t have asked that. Not right now.”
“Why?”
“I got tempted because you’re so open like this, and I… took advantage of it—of you. It was wrong, and I’m… I’m sorry.”
I considered that as I toyed with my straw, bending it around. For a brief moment, I wished it was metal, so I could bend it. I looked back to her, and she looked downright miserable, which I didn’t like at all.
“S’okay. Apology accepted.”
“June, you’re not all here right now,” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t—”
“Not good with my words,” I determinedly interrupted, the serious topic rousing me a bit, “but I’m here. With you. Um. You wanted to know why I like you, right?”
“You don’t have to—”
“You’re the nicest person I know,” I said, plowing ahead. “You take care of me, even when I’m using my coins, and you do it even though I’m bad.”
“Bad?” She said, clearly thrown by that last statement. “What on earth do you mean?”
Unbidden, my mom came to mind, and I shivered. “I’m rude, cause trouble, get in the way, eat all the food, and I-I’m not grateful, a-and…”
Elle reached over to hug me across the small distance between our chairs, and when our cheeks brushed past each other, I felt wetness. Hers? Mine? Ours? “June, you’re… well, I wouldn’t say rude—brash, maybe—and… okay, I’ll admit you eat a lot of food, but…”
I wetly chuckled. Mine, I guess. “Told you.”
“No, you’re none of those other things! How can you be ungrateful when you just got done saying how grateful you are for me! And if you cause trouble, then that goes double for me!”
Our conversation was interrupted by Jonathan starting in our direction from the tables he was taking care of in the more populated area. “Hey, is everything okay?” he said when he arrived. “She looks upset.”
“She is yes,” Elle said, schooling her features far better than I could have in the same circumstances. She pulled her wallet out and set two twenties on the table. “It’s nothing to be concerned about, but I think it’d be best if I took her outside.”
“A tantrum might be bad, yeah,” he warily said. I wasn’t entirely sure I managed to keep the ire off my face. I do not fucking throw tantrums, asshole. “If you’ll just give me a minute to get your change—”
“No need. The rest is your tip. Thank you for your service.” She grabbed her satchel as she stood, stashed her wallet, and held out her hand to me. “Let’s go, June. We should get you home, don’t you think?”
I took her hand and kept my face down as she walked me out of the deli. We were here under the pretense that I was disabled, and truth be told, I almost allowed myself to slip back under. I forced myself to resist the urge because this was clearly a conversation I needed to be lucid for. I carefully made the coins in her wallet weightless as we neared the door, and the world sharpened as my altered state bled away again. We didn’t immediately stop outside and instead kept going down the street until we were several buildings away.
Once we were a good distance from the deli, Elle tugged me into an alley and didn’t stop until we were a bit deeper in. Before I could say anything, she blurted, “You do have likable traits! You take care of me when I’m having bad days, and you act all tough, but you’re really sweet as can be underneath it all!”
I blinked, trying to remember exactly what I’d said in the deli. “Did… Did you copy my answer for what I like about you?”
She had clearly been about to say something else, but that insight caused her to pull up short, and after a moment’s consideration, she giggled. “I… I guess I kinda did.”
I couldn’t help the small smile that crept its way onto my face. “Thanks… And so we’re clear about all the things I like about you… I love how you care so much about things like bird watching. I never would have thought I’d like that, but you pulled me right in with your passion from the very first time we did it together. And you, um…”
I paused, flushing, and almost didn’t continue. I didn’t want her to feel any pressure, and I could easily see how admitting what I felt might do that. But the thought of how upset she’d been that after all those superficial things I had said earlier made me hate myself. I had to tell her and just hope she wouldn’t take it the wrong way.
“You, um, i-inspire me. To be… well, better. It’s dumb, I know, but when I see how nice you are to everyone, I think, ‘Yeah, that’s how I want to be.’ I… I try to be the kind of person who makes you smile because I like it when you smile.”
“Does that… make sense?” I self-consciously tacked on, anxiously waiting for her reaction.
A small, tentative smile found its way to her face. I could have cried. Well, again, I mean. “You don’t have to be better. I like you just the way you are.”
I coughed, failing to entirely stop the laugh that bubbled out of me. “I think that’s the corniest thing you’ve ever said.”
“But true,” she retorted, her smile growing wider.
I groaned but didn’t argue. She was wrong—I didn’t deserve someone like her, and I’d told her as much back in Philadelphia. But if she was willing to settle for me… then I was willing to push myself to become somebody she did deserve.
“C’mon,” I said as I reached for her hand once more. “Let’s go—”
Her eyes suddenly went wide as saucers, and she grabbed my hand and yanked me towards her. “Stay away from us!”
I twisted around to see what was going on and froze at the sight of Oni Lee’s red demon mask leering at me. What the fuck?! But I didn’t feel— My eyes quickly sought out the bandolier crossing his chest, and instead of the grenades he had worn when we fought previously, he had circular objects that I couldn’t feel with my power. It wasn’t just them either; there was no metal on him at all. He was a complete blank spot in my vision.
“Faultline will ruin you,” I warned, already reaching for the dumpster down the alley by a side door and all the small traces of metal nearby.
“We have your family, and if you do not wish her dead, then you will meet Lung’s terms,” he droned, his words carrying only the barest inflection. Unlike our last encounter where he was never in one space for long, this Lee remained in the middle of the alley, hardly moving and with his hands at his sides. “You sought to escape, but we will not be denied.”
I stiffened, and my grip on Elle’s hand tightened dangerously. “What have you done with Masuyo?!”
“There is a bomb in your club,” he said, ignoring my question, “one with nothing for you to hunt, metal girl. You will be at the abandoned factory at the corner of Chester and Duncan in thirty minute’s time and submit fealty to Lung. If you try to go to your club or if any of the mercenaries dares to show their face, then everyone you care about will be killed. Calling the PRT will end equally poorly. Is this unclear?”
Elle flinched, and Lee’s mask turned sharply to look at her. For a second, I thought he would put two and two together and get four, linking Elle with Labyrinth. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn’t. Either way, his mask eventually turned away from its silent glare back to me.
“Chester and Duncan in thirty minutes,” he repeated. A moment later, he crumbled into ash.