The Dangerous Samosa
Aru blinked and found herself staring at a brick wall covered in flyers for lost pets, more missing men, household help wanted, and remedies for baldness (Hair transplants! Now you don’t have to be bald and creepy! You can just be creepy!). A hard crust of frost clung to the cement, and strings of Christmas lights wound around the potted trees near the storefronts. Thecold air smelled like winter … and curry. A few pedestrians bustled past. A brown woman wearing a parka over hersalwar kameezdisappeared into a grocery store. On the other side of the street, a young white couple pushed their baby in a stroller and took turns eating out of a paper bag filled with crispy samosas, an Indian snack of fried pastry filled with potatoes and spices.
“Wherearewe?”asked Aru. She was freezing. They definitely weren’t in Atlanta, that was for sure.
Brynne gently lowered Aiden onto the sidewalk. He groaned, shook his head, and looked around groggily.
“Snake?” he asked.
“He’s off dancing bhangra.”
Aiden blinked. “’Kay,” he said fuzzily and slumped against the brick wall.
Brynne licked her finger and raised it to the air.
“Does that actually work—?” Aruasked.
“We are 40.5187 degrees north and 74.4121 degrees west.”
“In English!” said Aru through chattering teeth.
“Edison, New Jersey.”
Aru blinked. Now the stop signs, smells, and even the different storefronts made sense. “So, we’re in Little India.”
“Yep.”
It was no secret that there were lots of South Asian families in this pocket of the United States. Aru was pretty sure she’d even reada newspaper article about it once.
Now that she knew where they were, Aru returned Vajra to ball form in her pocket and looked at everything a little more closely. Snake boy had said they’d find some traffic, and maybe even some help, but nothing looked helpful here…. This city too had contributed to the growing number of Heartless. In the display window of an appliance store, TV screens showednews anchors frowning above tickers that pronounced:
SEARCH FOR THE MISSING CONTINUES EXPERTS SUSPECT BIOCHEMICAL FOUL PLAY IS THERE SOMETHING IN YOUR WATER?
“Is the thief’s song safe?” asked Aru.
Brynne nodded, tilting her head to one side, so Aru could see the hint of the necklace’s chain. “Now all we need to do is rescue Mini. Once we get her and she gives us the thief’s name,it’sall over.And we know we have to go to Durvasa. How hard could it be?”
Itdidsound easy. Then why was Aru so nervous?
“How far away is the land of sleep, anyway?” asked Aru. “And what about Aiden? Are we going to drag him behind us the whole time?”
“I’ve got him,” said Brynne, scooping him up like a sack of rice.
Aiden groaned. “This is humiliating. Put me down.”
“You’re about to pass out.”
Aidenraised his eyebrows. “Fair,” he said groggily, and slumped back to sleep.
Brynne shivered and shrugged. “C’mon, we can sort everything out over some chaat.”
Chaatdidn’t mean a talk, but savory Indian fast food—a combination of things like crispy potato pieces, spiced chickpeas, and yogurt sauces bursting with flavor. Just thinking about it made Aru’s stomach rumble hungrily. Pulling her sweatshirttighter around her, she followed Brynne—who was half-cradling Aiden—into a nearby chaat shop. The three of them squished into a booth. The table surface was kinda sticky, which made Aru miss Mini even more. If she were here, she would’ve brought out a one-gallon bottle of hand sanitizer. Brynne ordered them a ton of food, and within minutes, the table was covered with steaming samosas, paper-thindosas next to bowls of bright green chutney, sweet gulab jamun sitting in a dish of syrup, and iced mango lassis.
“First things first,” said Brynne, picking up Aiden’s water glass. He didn’t notice, because his head was on the table and he had started to snore. “Aru, can you take Aiden’s camera?”
“Why?” she asked.
“Just do it.”
