Standing in front of Otis was a small, blond girl with a twitchy left eye. She was wearing a fancy dress and white satin gloves, and was carrying with her a little red toolbox. She seemed not older than twelve. “It’s you, right?” Otis asked. “Sophie Happe?”
“I hate that name,” the little girl replied. “It’s so stupid.”
“‘Sophie’? I think it’s pretty.”
“The problem isn’t ‘Sophie’ as much as my surname, ‘Happe’.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with it either.”
“Really? Are you seriously telling me you don’t see the issue?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“‘Ms. Happe’? As in, mishap?”
“Oh…”
“Told ya.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve got a funny last name as well. ‘Von Hoot’. Y’know, like the sound an owl makes.”
“That’s beautiful. I love owls.”
“Let’s trade, then. I’ll be Otis Happe and you’ll be Sophie Von Hoot.”
“Deal!”
They both smiled and jokingly shook their hands. “Anyway,” Otis said. “Can I help you with something, little one?”
“Actually… I was about to ask if I could see you work.”
“By all means. Just don’t stay up too late — we don’t wanna make your old man upset.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
* * *
Later that night, Sophie was lying on her bed with her eyes wide open, checking on her table clock every few minutes. The lower half of the walls in the room was full of tiny scribbles of monsters and characters of every shape and kind, most of them hidden behind the furniture. She kept the crayons under the mattress, so that no-one could take them away from her.
Once the hands on the clock marked midnight, she got out of bed and came rushing out of her room. A stranger inside her own home, young Sophie scurried around the manor’s dark, empty hallways like a frightened mouse, careful not to startle her parents with the sound of her footsteps. She ran down the house’s imperial staircase; then, she crossed the front door and squished her body through the main gate’s bars while the guard was asleep; and, with that, she was free for the night.
After going past the beach, she found herself in the middle of the woods, deep within the foothills of the mountain. She repeated the directions over and over in her mind: “Follow the road up to the wooden gate with a ‘Danger of collapse’ sign on it, climb it, then move on till you see a bridge crushed by a giant boulder that fell off the mountainside”.
Once she reached the bridge, she was met by a smirking dark-skinned girl with dreadlocks, who was standing with her arms crossed and her back against a tree.
“Well, well,” the kid with dreadlocks said, with a smile on her face. “I was expecting to meet a fancy rich girl, not some blond goofball.”
“Marion!” Sophie exclaimed as she gave her a big hug. “It’s so good to see you!”
“You too, Eye-twitch.”
Once they stopped hugging, the girl started walking to the left, while making a beckoning gesture to Sophie.
“I found a new secret spot for us to hang out. It’s up here, in the mountain. Wanna go check it out?”
“Okay!”
Next, Marion took her up the road, where the pine trees grew so tall they covered the sky almost entirely. They ended up in a small pond, surrounded by a colony of frogs and tons of fireflies. “Here we are,” Marion said.
She then took a seat in a log that was lying by the water, and welcomed Sophie to join her.
“This? What’s special about this place?” Sophie asked, as she sat next to her friend.
“You’ll see. We just have to wait a little. In the meantime, how ‘bout a magic trick?” Marion asked her.
“Sure!” Sophie cheerfully replied.
Then, Marion took one card out of her deck and placed it on the log in front of Sophie, while holding a second card between her index and middle fingers.
“On the count of three, I’ll make this card disappear,” she said.
“Oh, boy!”
“One… two…”
Sophie had her eyes fixed on the card before. As she counted down, Marion started tapping it gently with the corner of the second card. Between each tap, she lifted her hand above her head.
“Three!”
Suddenly, the card seemed to have vanished from existence — except it wasn't the one on the log, but the one Marion was holding between her fingers. Sophie was so captivated she couldn’t help but to let out a little gasp. However, the illusion was quickly shattered as soon as she raised her head to look back at her friend.
“It’s in your ear!” Sophie said.
“Ya got me.”
Marion took the card off her ear and placed it back among the rest of the deck. Then, the smirk on her face disappeared as she looked away, staring into emptiness.
“You should’ve seen me that night,” Marion said. “I felt like I was on top of the world.”
“Are you talking about the time you won at poker?”
“Yeah. I made so much dough I spent the whole day at the penny arcade. Ever been to one of those?”
“Yeah! We have one at home.”
“…Of course you do.”
They stayed silent for a little while, taking in the sounds of nature echoing around them.
“If only I could get a sliver of that luck again, I’d do so many things… go to so many places,” Marion continued. “And I’d take you with me, of course.”
“I thought you were doing well with your street cardistry shows,” Sophie said.
“Eh. Ever since they started seeing me going in and out of the gambling house, people don’t stop by anymore.”
“What about your new family? How have you been adjusting to them?”
“I’m starting to think I was better off back at the orphanage. So, yeah. Not great.”
“Oh, c’mon. It can’t possibly be worse than that place.”
“Easy for you to say,” Marion replied, as she shuffled her deck of cards. “You got dealt the sickest hand ever.”
“Wanna switch places?”
“Ha! If only.”
Sophie then sat in a fetal position while looking down. “At least you’re free to do whatever you want,” she told Marion.
“I don’t have that many options, Eye-twitch.”
“Are you kidding me? You have all the options!”
“Name one.”
“Well, for instance, you could become… I dunno, a scientist.”
“...A scientist?”
“Yeah. Or an engineer. You were always good with numbers. Remember when the owner of the orphanage opened up a pub, and he put you in charge of the cash register? You were killing it back there!”
“Nothing like good ol’ child labor to set you on a career path.”
“What I mean is —…”
“I get your point. I’m doing the best I can with the hand that I got dealt. Speaking of which, I have a big game this friday. Will you come see me?”
“Actually, I have my dance class on that —...”
“Wait, hold that thought… there it is!” Marion said.
Suddenly, her friend pointed at the other side of the pond. The moon started setting behind the distant pine trees, creating a mirror-like reflection on the still water. The moon beams resembled sharp teeth — and the pine trees, the gaps in between them.
“Looks like… jaws,” Sophie said.
“I know, right? Like a shark with its mouth wide open. Didn’t I tell you this place was cool?”
Sophie stared at the pond with visible unease.
“...It scares me,” Sophie replied.
“Oh. That’s okay, we can just turn around,” Marion said, as she stood up and sat back down facing the opposite way. Sophie did the same. “Better?” Marion asked.
“Better,” Sophie replied.
* * *
The next day, as the sun was setting on the Arrecigo coastline, Otis and Lulu were aboard the Sea Urchin, resting next to one another on a pair of deck chairs.
“Welp... you asked me before, so now it’s my turn,” Otis said. “How come you never got married?”
“Eh, it’s always the same story,” Lulu replied. “I meet a nice guy, everything goes fine and dandy… and then they make me choose between the sea and them. The sea wins every time.”
They both stayed quiet for a moment, gazing at the few remaining sunrays before they disappeared into the distant waters.
“Funny how things are, huh?” Lulu said.
“What do you mean?”
“I was thinking,” she said, with a playful expression on her face. “What are the odds of you getting a job offer here, of all places?”
Otis smirked. “Lemme answer that with another question,” he said to her. “What kind of people are willing to pay for custom-made statues dedicated to their dead relatives?”
“I dunno. Rich people?” she replied.
“Exactly. I get job offers like this all the time. Fat cats like Rooster are pretty much my main patrons at this point. Do you really think I’d come all this way just for him, when I probably could’ve gotten a similar gig without the need to leave home?”
“You’re saying you didn’t come to Arrecigo for its world-renowned barnacle stew?” she jokingly asked.
Otis let out a laugh, only to get serious again immediately after. “The moment I said ‘yes’ to Rooster was the moment he told me he lived in the same town as you,” he concluded.
Lulu then gently caressed Otis’ hair and looked at him with bedroom eyes. “Hey, um…” she whispered, with a flirty tone in her voice.
“Yeah?”
“Would Mr. Happe get mad if you… y’know, came to work late tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so. I can go in and out as I please.”
“Is that so?”
Lulu then pressed her body against Otis’ and kissed him gently on his lips.
“Wait,” Lulu said. “We shouldn’t. I don’t wanna rush things this time around. Let’s try and take it slow, alright?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Suddenly, Lulu leaned in closer to him while giving him a devilish smile.
“I’m kidding,” she said.
* * *
Before they noticed, Otis and Ludmila were lying in her queen-sized bed, their clothes scattered across the floor. They were drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. She was holding a lit cigarette in her hand.
Lulu grazed Otis’ chest with the tip of her fingers. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlit room, rocked ever so slightly by the waves.
“Otis?” she said.
“Yes?”
“I really think you should let your bangs grow out again.”
“Alright, already.”
After a while, Lulu sat up and looked through the ship’s window, which was framing Arrecigo so perfectly it seemed almost like a painting come to life.
“I love this view of the town,” she said. “I come here almost every night to see it — never get tired of it. I’m taking in as much of it as I can before Sauvage ruins it for everyone.”
“Oh, yeah. Happe mentioned something about that man. He’s the ruler of these lands, isn’t he?”
“A lunatic is what he is. He’s picked up a fight with a neighboring kingdom called Lothyen, all because of a stupid dispute over territory. It won’t be long ‘til we all have to pay for his recklessness. I try not to give it much thought.”
“What do you mean? You think there might be some sort of war coming?”
“It’s hard to say. I certainly hope not, but stay in town long enough and you’ll be able to feel the tension in the air too.”
“Well, Happe seems to think very highly of the man. If he’s got the best interest of his people in mind, I’m sure he’ll want to avoid an armed conflict.”
“Sure. Whatever. Look, I shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. Can we change the subject? Talking about that guy makes me depressed.”
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