New phone. Who dis?
“Ha. Very funny. How do you even know that? Never mind. Do you know if Auntie Zee went to the Night Market for supplies yesterday?”
Don’t know. Don’t care.
“You are determined to be unhelpful, aren’t you.”
Yes.
She glared at the mirror, and then she searched the inn for Jack. Calisa found him cleaning the bathroom on the third floor. Leaning against the doorframe, she asked as casually as she could, “Hey, want to go on an adventure?”
Jack didnotwant to go on an adventure, thank you very much.
She explained what she’d found and what she planned: a trip to the Night Market to see if they could locate Auntie Zee. And she explained her reasoning: the inn needed Auntie Zee, and just waiting passively for her to decide to return was a greater risk than going to find her.
“It’s absolutelynota greater risk,” Jack objected.
“We can’t run the inn without Auntie Zee,” she said. “I don’t see there’s much choice. She said she’d be back by dinnertime yesterday, and she’s way overdue. We need to find her and tell her she can’t do this. Not without telling us where she’s going, when she’ll be back, or what we’re supposed to do while she’s gone. She has responsibilities, whether she wants them or not.”
He protested for about five minutes more, gesturing with the sponge that was still in his hand. He kept his voice low so the guests wouldn’t hear. It was a terrible idea, he said. Much too dangerous. Auntie Zee wouldn’t want Calisa to risk herself, her moms wouldn’t want her to risk herself, Steve wouldn’t want her to risk herself…. What she heard under it all was:I don’t want you to risk yourself.
He didn’t want her hurt. Or lost. Or to have anything bad happen to her. As the one with the most experience at the Faraway Inn, he considered it his responsibility to keep her safe.
The wordresponsiblewas made for people like Jack, Calisa decided.
Mom-Kate would have said,He has integrity.
It was rare.
And sweet.
He was absolutely not the kind of boy she was normally drawn to. She would have said she liked boys with a hint of danger—the kind with an attitude, as Auntie Zee would have said. But Jack wasn’t like that.
So why did she even want him to come with her through the portal? She could do it by herself. And why didn’t she get tired of spending time with him? He should have bored her. He was soniceandgood. He shouldn’t have been her type at all.
She let him spool out all his arguments until he ran out of words. She just looked at him, and he looked back at her. He sighed heavily. “You’re still going anyway, aren’t you.”
“Yep.”
And with that Calisa simply walked out of the bathroom. Leaving behind the cleaning supplies, he tagged along as she went downstairs to the second floor, to the guest room where she’d seen the nighttime farmers market. She thought it was a pretty safe bet that it was the Night Market that Auntie Zee had mentioned repeatedly in her logbook.
“Just once more, for the record, I think this is a mistake,” Jack said. “My father was going for supplies when he went missing. Now Auntie Zee, same situation: going for supplies, and then missing.”
“Not doing anything is a mistake,” Calisa said. “Besides, you said she’s disappeared before. It’s not the same as your father.”
“And if the door malfunctions and we’re trapped on the other side?”
Then that was a Future Calisa problem. “It won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
Yes, it was a risk, but she’d read every entry in the inn’s record book, and the Night Market was the most common origin for guests, as well as the source for many of the supplies that Auntie Zee used to feed her guests. According to the notes, the Night Market was like the inn: a nexus, with customers and vendors from multiple realms, which meant the people there were accustomed to random, clueless visitors. Besides, she’d been there once already, even if she hadn’t immediately realized it. The wind didn’t hurt like it had in Melidor’s world, and the whole place practically screamed to be explored.
She unlocked the guest room with the master key. “We can’t run the inn without Auntie Zee.” She didn’t add:And your father can’t return without the inn.
“I know that, but…”
She scooted inside, and he followed her, closing the door behind him. “This is a portal that’s been stable for years—Auntie Zee went through hundreds of times. If there’s any portal that’s safe, it’s this one, and if there’s any place she’s most likely to be, it’s through here.”
