Karma smiled. “You never know.” She strode away and continued walking until she reached the corner, and as soon as she was out of the girl’s sight, she popped back into the ether.
“Is that it?” Gaia asked. “You just told her to get a job?”
“Do you want to see what happens when she does?”
Gaia smirked. “No. Why don’t you just tell me?”
“Okay, she gets to the store that she likes with her aunt. Roxanne—that’s her name, by the way—puts a few outfits together, tries one on, then goes out to the store manager and gives the spiel that I told her to. And she’s hired on the spot. Not only that, but their clothes look so cute on her, the woman lets her model them while she works until she earns them, and then she can take them home.”
“Seriously? Nobody does that.”
“Not without some coaching.” Karma winked.
Gaia thought,Perhaps my sister isn’t as mean as I thought she was. “I guess sometimes you don’t go after the same person I would, but look how well that turned out.”
“Oh? Who would you have ‘gone after’?”
“The a-hole who chopped off her hair.”
“Oh, you mean the kid who fell, holding the knife she used, and cut her own hand?”
Gaia laughed. “And did you have anything to do with that fall?”
Karma perched on a bench, swinging her spiky boots back and forth in the ether. “Maybe…but I’ll never tell.”
All right, maybe I’ll just talk to her about my situation and let her tell me what she would do instead of me telling her what I want her to do, Gaia thought. “Do you have a few minutes?”
“Sure. Would you like to go get a drink?”
“Oh yes. That sounds good. Where should we go?”
“Let me take you to this new place I just found,” Karma said. She took Gaia’s hand, and the two of them appeared in an alley of a busy neighborhood lit up with neon signs. Lots of people, lots of laughter, high heels clicking on the sidewalk, music playing…
This lively atmosphere wasn’t what Gaia was hoping for. “I wanted to talk more privately.”
“We can talk privately in the restaurant. No one will be paying any attention to us, and besides, it’ll be too noisy to make out more than a word or two if anyone did try to listen in. Wait, is that what you’re wearing?”
Gaia looked down at her long white tunic. “Do I need to blend in?”
Karma laughed and snapped her fingers, and Gaia looked down at herself again. She was wearing skinny jeans, high-heeled brown boots, and a clingy blue blouse that crisscrossed in the back.
“Hey, I look pretty good.”
“Of course you do. I dressed you.”
“Yes, you did. Well, thank you.”
“Hang on. I need a second.” Karma snapped her fingers and suddenly wore a lighter pair of skinny jeans, the boots without the spikes, and a green clingy top with cutouts on the shoulders. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go into this bar, and you can tell me all about it.”
As soon as they entered, a familiar female stood and waved to them from a table. “Yoo-hoo! Over here!”
Oh crap. Fate’s here. What could she want?
“Sister! What are you doing here?” Mother Nature asked in what she hoped was a cheerful tone.
“Karma called me.”
“I called her,” Karma reiterated.
