“We were barely able to come out at all when I was here for winter break.”
Using the grass pathway, they made their way up Main Street, past the ice cream parlor and the jewelry shop, and accountant’s office, and the marble entrance to the grand building in the center of the square, the golden domed clock tower looking out over the whole town, where Jack Hemming had his office.
“I miss it here sometimes,” she confided unexpectedly. “There are lots of naga at my school, and goblins. Some humans. But not like this. We don’t have grass sidewalks,” she huffed, and Ranar chuckled gently.
“This place is pretty special. Although, there are more and more multi-species communities forming all the time. I’ll bet that by the time you go off to college, this will be normal and you’ll have your pick of where you live.”
She nodded slowly. “Maybe I can go to college here.”
His voice stuck for a moment, wanting nothing more than to agree with her wholeheartedly, assuring her that she could come back here whenever she wanted, custody agreement be damned.But that’s not what you agreed on.“Sure, but this is a prettysmall school. Maybe you’ll want to try living in the big city for a while. But you can go anywhere you want, Noodle.”
“Mommy’s dating someone new.”
She exhaled sharply after blurting the words, and Ranar wondered if she had been ready to burst, anxious to tell him from the moment the wheels of her plane touched down in Bridgeton. He waited for the hurt to come, the heartbreak that he was nothing more than a memory in his ex-wife’s mind, but it never did. The only thing he was jealous of, if it was jealousy at all, was that she had managed to figure out how to balance it all, and he still couldn’t.
“Well, that’s good. Is he nice? Do you like him?”
Ruma shrugged, sipping on her overly sweetened ice cream drink. Ranar didn’t think there was a single drop of coffee in it, but that was probably for the best. “He’s okay, I guess.” They had turned off Main Street, making their way down one of the narrow side streets in a concertina pattern, the sidewalk less forgiving here. “Is that comic book shop still open? I want to see if they have any of the MochiBunny merchandise.”
“Yeah, it’s right down this way—“
They had just reached the corner and Ranar turned, pointing down the crossroad when he saw it. His voice stuck, his jaw stuck, every muscle in his body stuck at that moment, frozen, rigor mortis setting in immediately. The windows were covered, hiding whatever construction was taking place within, wrapped with an advertisement that made his insides turn to jelly. Horror-stricken, slightly queasy jelly. The sticky sweet gulab jamun was in danger of making a reappearance on the sidewalk, he realized, swaying in place.
Coming soon!
The Pink Blossom by Bloomerang
It wasn’t possible. They would never let a chain store open right off Main Street, practically under Jack’s nose. It wasn’tpossible. But the sign is right there. Suddenly everything in his body seemed too high, his lungs inflating around his sternum, and his heart beating the back of his tongue. He was going to be sick. He was going to fucking set something on fire.It’s not possible.
It had been their one saving grace, these last ten years or so. The safeguard he clung to in the endless winter months — they’d never have to worry about corporate competition in Cambric Creek, the bane of every small florist, the reason so many of his industry peers had shuttered their doors for good.
The entire floral industry hinged on one of two tent poles — online business and weddings. Funerals, though constant, were inconsistent in their needs. Perhaps if he was a florist in a human neighborhood it might be different, if casket sprays and cemetery pieces were more in demand, but as it was, many of his multi-species neighbors believed in committing their deceased loved ones to the flame. A small commemorative basket, perhaps a standing spray if there was an elaborate ceremony, but not enough for one to pay their mortgage reliably.
Weddings were a beast unto themselves. Ranar had often wondered if he could simply opt out of the online wire service altogether, reestablish himself as a wedding florist. It could be done, but as he’d told Sumi weeks and weeks earlier, that first days she’d come in to his shop, it required one working themselves near to death the entire bridal season just to keep the lights on during the winter months, when the entire industry took a long, chilly nap.This is why brick-and-mortar is a liability.The everyday online orders were essential to a daily operation like his, one that relied on an evenly dispersed workload, allowing him to pay his distributors and all the shop utilities during those months when the temperatures dipped below freezing. The wedding season paid for the winters and theonline orders put food on the table, and that was the way it had always been.
Jack Hemming’s distaste for chain stores had bled into his redeveloped downtown, the entirety of Cambric Creek seeming to embrace the mom and pop ethos. That was what it saved them, all these years. The knowledge that they were safe from one of these online outposts, that the money he had paid into the service all these years was worthwhile for the orders he received in return, that he could keep his doors open, keep a roof over his own head, and give his parents a reason to leave the house each day.
So what the fuck changed?
Ranar didn’t know how he made it through the rest of the evening with Ruma. His smile felt plastered on, and he hated not being authentically present and engaged for a single minute of time with his daughter, but he would have been lying if he’d pretended that his brain wasn’t somewhere else.Somewhere else, throwing up in the bushes.
It didn’t seem to matter.
She was thrilled with her first day back with him — the visit with her grandparents, coffee, and a Squishberry — a squishy stuffed anime rabbit drinking its own expensive gourmet coffee, one she had crowed was a special edition she’d not been able to find at home. His hands were shaking once they were finally in his house, but Ruma seemed not to notice, and quickly settled in on the low, two-tiered sofa in his living room, finding a movie to watch.
Having the upper body of a human meant their furniture needed to address the physical needs of both snake and human torso, and the low, wide furniture with an elevated section was what most households like theirs preferred. The style was also popular with cervitaurs and other smaller hippocampeanspecies, but nagas required heat, especially living in a colder environment, like theirs.
“Do you want the heat on, Noodle?”
“No, I don’t think so. I have my blanket. But you should definitely make some popcorn.”
He was glad she was so easily distracted, but annoyed that he had to share even a minute of his time with her thinking about literally anything else. Still, it gave him the opportunity to have a quiet breakdown, realizing he’d been remiss in keeping up with the neighborhood gossip, as he pushed his laptop open with shaky hands. Settling back on his coil, Ranar took a deep breath, tapping open the DiscHorse icon.
His conversations with Pinky had taken over nearly all of the time he spent online. How could they not? She was funny, she shared his love of plants, she was sharp and intelligent.She knows the entire script of all four Coming Gnome movies. That’s the most adorable thing in the world.
It was his folly, however, ignoring the rest of his online communications. The business owner’s server wasn’t especially lively. After all, they were all local, and most of them saw each other in person throughout the month. Many of the older business owners in town had no use for the online social platform, while some of the younger members of the group tended to waylay every conversation into something that would’ve been best as a private DM.
Toggling over to the screen, away from his conversation with Pinky for the first time in months, Ranar held his breath. Maybe someone will have mentioned something. He hoped for at least one message, maybe two, anything to clarify this nightmare.
