TWO WEEKS LATER (SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2021)
FIGHTING GYM, LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
“Hands up!” And Craig followed with a flick jab and a “gentle” body blow.
“Ufff” Ella completely lost her breath and landed on her ass.
“You are strong for your size. And your reflexes are fire. You also don’t make the same mistake twice.” He looked at her sitting on the ground, “well, not three times anyway.”
“Three things for you to work on: You aren’t keeping your core tight enough when you strike or defend. And you overreacted to the jab opening yourself up. Finally your stance is shallow. Remember, we talked about it — take a comfortable step forward and out — those are your corners for stance.”
“Push-ups!”
Ella got in a plank and waited for the call, her sweat was dripping down her face and arms. The cold chill from the open gym door was giving her goosebumps but still felt great.
They did more push-ups than she ever thought she could. And then we moved into Craig’s religion: ab work.
A recovery drink and fifteen minutes later she was under a bar trying to get her squat form correct.
“Have you been here everyday?” Craig asked.
“Just about. Commuting from the Village sucks though. So I’ve been alternating here and another gym in Manhattan and the school gym.”
“You need to slow down. You can’t go zero to hero right away. Frankly the progress you have made in three weeks is disgusting. You should be crawling on the floor. That attack freaked you out, huh?”
He had been dancing around this topic of her advancement for a while now.
“Yeah a bit. But I also just realized I needed to be stronger and more prepared. Plus it is kind of fun. And I come out here since where else am I going to get free training from someone as good as you?”
Later that day
NYU; Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York, United States
She knocked at her mentor’s door. “You called, professor?”
“Yes, come on in! Sit down. And I told you to call me Anatoly.”
The professor waved her to a seat which Ella quickly cleared the journals and papers from as well as a half-eaten lunch underneath that looked about two weeks old.
“Hmm. Still good?” He chewed on a corner of the sandwich. “Nope” and unceremoniously put the bag to the side to get buried again in papers pending archeological investigations.
Ella sighed a bit and threw it out. In the hallway trash, of course, since the regular trash bin was overflowing. The sign on the door said “No cleaning” since the professor didn’t want his organization system disturbed. Or maybe it was a composting pile he had going on.
His bald head reflected the fluorescent lights above as he contemplated her over his readers and he steepled his hands.
“So. What are you going to be for Halloween?”
Ella blinked, “I hadn’t thought about it yet. My friend, Charlie, is freaking out about it and said waiting til the day before was irresponsible.” Ella paused and then muttered under her breath, “…as if she has any grounds to call someone out on responsibility.”
“Well. Halloween is today so that is even more irresponsible. Go out and have some fun. You come in and work from 9am until long after I leave. Take a break.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He looked back down at his desk and started reading again, waving his hand in shooing motion as a clear dismissal.
THAT EVENING
ELLA’S STUDIO; GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
Ella looked in dismay at the costume that Charlie had bought her.
“Isn’t it amazing? I had to go all over to find something as amazing as this so late. And it is my gift to you!”
“Ummm. Well. I like the gift. But… It is a bit.”
Jade piped up, “it is super-ho level.”
Charlie eyed them both. “You think?”
“Look, I appreciate it and all. But I am tired. And I was going to hit the gym early tomorrow.”
Charlie’s eyes were downcast, “But, but, I looked everywhere, and I, I payed a lot for this!”
Ella squirmed. There was no way she was going out in that ridiculous costume. It was something a Carnival dancer in Rio de Janeiro would wear. Charlie’s shoulders were shaking. Was she crying?
Charlie burst out laughing. “This is my costume dummy. I knew you didn’t have the guts for this amazing, no, this glorious outfit. Your costume is here.” And she handed over a bag.
Ella looked inside.
THAT NIGHT
GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
The Halloween party was spilling out the door into the stairwell, merging with the party that was happening one floor below. The stairs themselves were shaking as people bounced up and down with the music.
All except for Charlie, who had plenty of room. The broad swathe of glittering peacock feathers fanned behind her taking up a full six feet. She had added googly eyes to the feathers which made them even more ridiculous. Every time Charlie turned around, she ended up hitting someone with them. They were so eye catching you almost didn’t notice the almost complete lack of other clothing. Well except for her boyfriend who she was getting sloppy with on the dance floor.
Ella’s catsuit costume was perhaps a bit too skintight for her comfort, she felt like she was going to bust out of the front at any point, and she kept having to pull the front zipper up. Ella suddenly had the horrible thought that Charlie would totally sabotage the stitching for laughs, and that thought made her clutch her arms around her tight, which exacerbated the whole problem. And well, she had put on a decent amount of muscle. Craig had accused her of taking steroids given how strong she was in just a few weeks.
She was just getting into the rhythm of things when someone grabbed her arm, and she came face to face with Jae-Young.
“Hey, I’ve been looking all over for you! Something is going on. Something, well, you know.”
She tailed him out of the party to the streets and watched him slip off his ring. He looked at her, “Only night I can do this in public. Now do your glowy eye thing”
Ella focused and also relaxed, trying to find that state she had been practicing in the mirror each day. She could feel it when her eyes started to glow this time. The crown settled on her head. Both came amazingly fast and stronger than they ever had before.
Under her eyesight she could see colors flickering all over the street. She looked in the sky and could see wraithlike figures soaring over the sky, one flying right overhead that looked remarkably like, no was, a Chinese dragon? Its scales glimmered gold with a red mane and it shed what looked like glitter as it flew through the sky. The streets were covered in it as if it was snow.
But while most people seemed to walk through it as if it was invisible and intangible, occasionally a figure would seem to be wading through it.
“What the fuck!”
“I know, right?”
A passing group in costumes ran through the not-snow, kicking up the magical glitter at one another. When they saw her, they came to an immediate stop and bowed to one knee (where they had a knee). Again, the colors of the rest of the world felt washed out as even the costumes they wore had a vitality that was ineffable. A toad, a bear was missing several teeth, a snake, a turtle and a raven smoking a pipe. As they stood back up, Ella’s breath caught as what were costumes became no longer costumes but they actually became their animal guises. The bear reached to its mouth and pulled out another tooth and presented it to her with a certain amount of formality — well as much formality as a bear could have. She grabbed it inelegantly and somewhat belatedly with a hesitant “thank you.”
They waited expectantly, each down on one knee, and Ella realized it was for her. She waved them on, and they resumed their trek through the magical glitter snow. As they drew apart, the hyperreality of their natures faded away and they looked like any other costumed person except for the strange way they navigated. The non-magical seemed to walk normally through the snow as if it wasn’t there — and it wasn’t for them — but for her and the others, it felt real. She could already see much better than she should have been able to, and she could feel her crown manifest on her head.
“Let’s go…” Jae-Young grabbed her hand and they began to run through the piles of glitter, laughing like children. The glitter gently tingled when it touched her, like gentle static electricity.
Every so often another mysterious being would come close and bow to her. She would gather what dignity she could when not throwing glitter at Jae-Young to accept their wordless bows and let them go on their way.