“Nothing.”Esmeralda batted her lashes. She feigned nonchalance. “Just an invitation…to the Running.”
“You’re razzing me,” Gabriel said.
She thrust the letter toward him. Gabriel took it, his thin brows raised. He mouthed the words as he read. He hadn’t gone to school a day in his life but had taught himself how to read while selling week-old newspapers to bored men as they waited for their significant others at luxury retail shops. Esmeralda had never been to school either, but her parents had taught her how to read, write, and pick locks. At least they’d gifted her that.
As he read, she smirked and turned toward the periwinkle cabinet she’d painted with Camila a few months back. They’d found it abandoned near the train tracks in a gleaming city called Montecino. Esmeralda hated leaving unwanted things behind and simply had to have it. So, they lugged it into her tiny fortune teller’s wagon and spruced it right up to store even more discarded knickknacks.
She opened one of the doors and peeked at herself in a small mirror to ensure her porcelain dove mask wasn’t crooked.
Gabriel huffed from behind her. “How did you con your way into the Running?”
She might have been offended by that statement if she hadn’t wondered the same thing.
“Perhaps the ringmaster has taken notice of my magnificent fortune telling skills.”
Gabriel guffawed in reply.
She changed from her plain slippers into heeled boots that tied up to her shins. Now that she was in the Running, she thought it wise to put her best foot forward. Or in this case, her only pair of unscuffed shoes.
“I heard Melanie the Marionette practically whirled herself into oblivion to earn the top spot,” Gabriel said. “How do you plan on wooing our ringmaster for all three rounds?”
“I suppose the same way I have wooed you into helping me tell fates.”
“By lying through your teeth?”
“I was going to say by being the charismatic wonder that Iam.”
Gabriel chuckled. “I love how delusional you are.”
Esmeralda laughed off the sting Gabriel’s jest inflicted. She knew he was only teasing, but the sorry truth of it was, she survived on delusions. Esmeralda was a nobody with no one to look after her. At every turn in her life, it seemed she was doomed to be left behind, to be deemed unworthy. But the invitation from Ángel Veracruz was a new start. Becoming the lead act in the most famous carnival in the world would change everything. She would finally be a somebody. And she would have something that would never turn its back on her. Money.
Someone banged on the wagon’s front door. “Is anyone inthere?!”
Gabriel checked the timepiece hanging from his pocket. “You’re fifteen minutes late,” he mouthed.
Esmeralda winced. She cleared her throat, letting her words smooth out into a sultry tone. “The great Paloma Blanca is nearly ready, señor. The spirits are waking as we speak.” She waved Gabriel on while quickly reapplying her plum-colored lip paint.
He placed the invitation on her bed beside the gift box and grabbed cards from her cabinet. He set them on a table covered with a deep purple fabric.
“Find any good candidates to scheme while you were out amongst the throng?” Gabriel asked before shoving a bowl of dry ice under the tablecloth.
“I did.” She grabbed the large palm leaf she used for decor and fluttered it in the air, dispersing the manufactured mist. “I gave my cards to a pair of young women who need my help to advance their relationship. And to a clucking hen.”
“I wonder if hens know how to tip properly,” he replied.
Giggling, Esmeralda handed Gabriel the leaf. He gave her a crystal ball in return. She took a seat behind the table and fluffed out the feathers that made up her skirt. “How about you?” she asked. “Any leads from the guests in line?”
“Plenty.” Gabriel pulled a curtain closed around her cot and personal items. She never told him how grateful she was that he thought to do such a thing. That he thought enough of her to realize she was desperate for some sort of privacy. But it also offered him a perfect place to hide while she told fortunes. So perhaps it wasn’t really for her at all.
“The handsome young man in front of the line is a knownbootlegger. He sells hooch to anyone with coin. Even seventeen-year-olds like me.” Gabriel winked as he opened his jacket, revealing a shiny flask. “Clearly, he doesn’t care for the laws of the land and prefers money over most things. Oh, and the woman wearing butterfly wings has three children and a husband she despises.”
“Does she despise just the husband or the children as well?”
Gabriel pursed his lips in thought. “Let’s go with both. She does have rather large bags under her eyes.”
Esmeralda nodded as she shuffled her cards, taking mental notes as Gabriel prattled on about the necessity of a good nightly face serum. With each reorder of the stack, the ink shifted and glinted. It was ready to work its mischievous magic.
“There’s a pair of siblings who want to know if their goldfish is at peace,” he said as he placed the needle on a record that played ghostly melodies mixed with ethereal chimes.
