Saturday, May 28, 2022 Charlie’s apartment, TriBeCa, Manhattan, New York, United States

“Ella, come on!” Jade was at the door.

Ella ran down the stairs still pulling on a sweater. “Relax. I am coming. Shouldn’t we go for a jog or something, it is so nice outside!”

“The last time we did that, you ran sprints up and down the block. So no! We are taking one day off a week.”

Charlie and Adra appeared from the kitchen with a wicker picnic basket, “See, I knew I would get to use this thing eventually!”

They all headed outdoors and made a slow walk uptown towards the Greenway. It was a classic spring day in the city, and lots of people were at the park but they found a spot to set out their picnic blanket and set up food.

Charlie pulled out the chicken and couscous dish and started serving out portions. Ella slathered on some harissa and took a bite and just felt a wave of pleasure.

Zaidu’s latest indignity had been to put them on military rations and earn real food by scoring touches on him. None of them had yet. It was painful and, as much as Ella hated to admit it, very motivating.

She noticed that Adra was also taking his time with each bite and he winked in shared suffering.

Charlie poured them some mint tea. Ella took a sip, “Charlie, are you okay? This isn’t spiked.”

“Clean living baby!” she replied, “Plus gotta save the hard stuff for tonight!”

Afterwards, they watched some young children run around with a soccer ball. They mostly tripped over one another.

“I think that one just peed his pants,” Jade noted. The little boy started crying and his mother ran over and started changing him on the spot with practiced motions.

The sun felt warm and Ella started to feel drowsy from the food and she lay back and looked at the sky. Her contacts were dry, she wasn’t used to wearing them that much anymore and she grabbed her case and took them out and put on some drug store sunglasses she had gotten.

As she lay back to look at the clouds, she noticed the telltale shimmer of magic in the sky, but it was diffuse and just a hint so she resolved not to worry about it.

A fluttering of wings and a squawk, and Ella saw Peelatchachía announcing his arrival. Isaac had made it down and he sat companionably next to Ella who smiled at him. They hadn’t really managed to go out much and Ella wanted to change that.

She moved from her wrapped up sweater to her head in his lap and just relaxed while he talked about nothing in particular. Eventually she drowsed off and he took off his hat and put it over her to cover her eyes.

When she woke the sun was still overhead. She had maybe drifted off for an hour but they were all packing up. She stood up and with nothing else to do with it, stuck the hat on her head.

“Howdy pardner!” she said cheerfully.

Charlie looked at her, “Yeah. No. Don’t do that again.”

“Hey! I would have you know I would make an excellent cowgirl!” and to emphasize that point she shot Charlie with finger guns.

“Yeah, definitely don’t do that again.” Charlie said and walked over and pulled the hat off, throwing it to Isaac.

Jade grabbed Ella’s hand and started dragging her off.

“Hey, give me one minute.” Ella walked back to Isaac.

“So…”

“So…” Isaac returned.

The Peelatchachía who was sitting on his shoulder pecked at him, and he winced.

“I was wondering… if you’d like to go get some dinner?” he said hesitantly.

“Sure. I’d love that. I am free next Friday?”

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

“Come on Ella,” Jade called.

“OK. Gotta go.” Ella laughed a little bit awkwardly and then stumbled back to go to Jade.

“Where are we going anyway?”

“Where I usually go on Saturdays. Figured it would be good for you.”

“Wait! I finally get to find out what you do with your Saturday afternoons?”

“Yes.”

Jade led them across Canal Street into Chinatown and then a sharp right on Lafayette. She stopped in front of a building and pointed.

“This is what I do every Saturday.”

Ella looked at the building. It would have been a relatively anonymous building in New York except for the telltale line coming from the door.

And suddenly Ella understood perhaps a bit more about Jade.

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

They went into the shelter and into the kitchen to start helping prep dinner for the long line of homeless people outside.

Ella wiped the sweat off her brow and kept moving. Jade was in front serving and Ella was carrying large pots full of soup to and from the kitchen.

The chef in the back, a big Cajun fellow called, what else but Bubba, had been surprised when she had said she could pick up the huge stock pots but that turned to outright shock when she grabbed two of them and hoisted them easily.

Then she had helped move chairs and tables like they were nothing. Ella had been forced to tone it down.

As the people came in for food, Ella helped get dishes, ran around and cleaned up spills and basically tried to make herself useful. Eventually they ran out of food, but the line out the kitchen was longer than it had been when they had started.

“Is it always like this?” Ella asked.

“Pretty much.” Jade answered as she fished out the last of the stew.

“Hey, girl… Give me some of that!”. A large guy, dirty and covered in tattoos started yelling. He had missed the end of the stew by two people.

The girl Jade had dished out to retreated and the guy started moving towards her.

Ella stepped in front of him, “We are out of stew. Sorry.”

He stared at her, and maybe he would have done something, but he suddenly turned away and walked out.

“Thanks,” said the girl. She looked maybe thirteen or fourteen.

“No worries.” Ella said.

Ella noticed something as the guy walked away.

She went back to cleaning up, getting between the tables. When she got near the right person, she whispered, “Leave him alone. He is just hungry.”

The man nodded and sat back down to stew.

“Also, make sure Arcsa sends an extra donation here to make up for the food you guys are eating. That could have gone to someone who needed it.”

The man, no, the Aqrabuamelu, had the grace to at least look abashed.

And maybe because she was looking for it, she saw something else. She switched to hand signals surreptitiously.

One contact. Hold.

The soldier nodded and sent the signal to another Aqrabuamelu she hadn’t seen on the other side of the room. If Zaidu asked, of course Ella had seen him.

She kept sweeping working closer and closer to the last one. The girl that she had saved was sitting next to a much younger child, maybe five, one that she was sharing her dish with. Someone who was gently glowing in Ella’s vision.

She grabbed her phone and texted Jade who was behind the counter

Go in back. Magic. Maybe danger

Jade looked at her phone and then at Ella, visibly scared. She went in back.

Ella moved behind the two sitting there. The other folks were making their way up to the hostel for bedding before the curfew.

“Who is your friend?” Ella asked the older, human girl.

“My sister,” said the older girl.

The other soldier came up to the table and sat across from them and said, “Hey, I’m Seb. Nice to meet you.”

“Go away!” said the younger one, her voice with a bit of a lisp, “smell wrong. Like bugs. Like her!”

Ella pushed aside her surprise at seeing Seb here.

“I don’t think she is your sister. Are you?”

Ella kept scanning and she finally found it, a glowing ring Ella could see through her shoes, on one of her toes.

“Sorry, she might be your sister. But she certainly is adopted. Right, little elf?”

The girl tried to bolt, but Seb’s hand clamped down on hers.

“We won’t hurt you. Either of you.”

The child was crying and had grabbed onto the older child and buried her head into her shoulder.

“Leave Sally alone! She is my sister!”

Ella’s heart softened a bit.

“Seb. Let her go.”

Seb did and the little girl, Sally, wrapped both her hands around the elder and sobbed.

“Here…” Seb offered a candy bar to them which they regarded with suspicion. Ella sighed, candy from a stranger — could it be any more sinister?

But they were children and hungry and scared, and the little one grabbed the bar, she opened it and was about to take a bite when she stopped. She carefully broke the bar, taking only a small piece for herself and giving the larger one to the other girl.

“Fuck this,” Ella cursed, causing both girls to almost bolt.

“Jade,” she called. Jade came out looking at the two children, Seb sitting across from them, the other soldier, and Ella.

“Are any of those other folks out there still? The ones that didn’t get any food?”

Jade looked at her wondering where she was heading with this.

“Yeah. For sure there are. They always stay around hoping for a bed.”

Ella stepped away and got her bag. She took out her stipend and handed it to Jade.

“Get as much food as you can for these kids and anyone else who needs it. Keep the rest for here. Order some pizza or something… whatever takes it the furthest.”

Jade looked at Ella’s monthly stipend in her hands. “You sure?”

“One hundred percent.”

“Soldier, your name?”

“Tamzi, Blessed One.”

“None of that out here. Tell Arcsa my stipend comes here every month. I’ll either eat rations or here.”

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted sharply, all pretense of being homeless being cast aside.

“You,” Ella barked at the children. Angry for some reason she would sort out later. They jerked to attention.

“What kind of pizza do you like?”

The girls stood there.

“Ella,” Jade laid a hand on her arm, “I’ve got this.”. She took off the hair net and put it aside and absentmindedly fluffed out her hair. “Ella here is usually very nice. And she is going to get pizza!” Jade’s voice was very gentle, like talking to a skittish animal ready to bolt.

“So why don’t you tell her what kind of pizza you want?”

Ella consciously toned down her body language and intensity.

“Sorry girls. I’m sorry if I sounded angry. I’m not angry at you…”

The little girl pulled at the older and then whispered into her ear.

The older girl declared, “Pineapple.”

The room was full. Bubba and the other folks were eating fresh pizza. Seb and the older girl, Alicia, were laughing and joking around. Sally was leaning against her ‘sister,’ half asleep.

Jade leaned over and whispered, “I have a room set aside for the children. "

Ella thought for a moment, “The little one isn’t human. I think I should take her back with me to the Aqrabuamelu. "

“And do what with her? Or her sister? What about that boy, Seb, who is he?”

Ella had forgotten that Jade hadn’t met Seb before. She also was wondering what Seb was doing here.

“It is kind of a long story. Why don’t you come with us? At this point I think you might as well see where I have been spending my time. Plus I think the Aqrabuamelu taking in the lost children is better than them just being killers.”

Eventually everyone left, stomachs full. Ella looked around at the homeless, some had been mentally ill, or substance abusers, some had been just down on their luck.

We are the choices we make, she thought to herself as she picked up the sleeping girl and took her to a bed at the shelter.

“Seb, keep an eye on her and see if she wants to come to the training compound.”

Seb nodded and Ella left.