Elsewhere by Will Shetterly

Author:Will Shetterly
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf, azw3
Tags: elves, faerie, punk, terri windling, bordertown, borderland
Publisher: Will Shetterly

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In my room I read from a paperback of Huckleberry Finn that was on Sparks’s bookshelf. When she showed up, she looked at me like she’d forgotten I lived there, then said, “You’re still up.”

“Down, actually.” I meant more than the fact that I was lying on my mat, but I didn’t want her to hear that. “Or should I say, yeah, thank God, here’s hoping the third floor doesn’t meet the first anytime tonight?”

She glanced back, then nodded tiredly. “I’m going to sleep. The light doesn’t bother me.”

“Who makes the candles?”

“We do. Now and then a bunch of us get together and do whatever needs doing. It’s the Castle Pup experience.” She put her hands on the buttons of her shirt. “Mind turning around?”

“If I did?”

She shrugged and began unbuttoning her shirt.

“’S right.” I turned on my side. I tried to keep from trying to identify each item of her clothing by the sound it made as she removed it, but Mark Twain wasn’t quite as interesting as he’d been a few minutes before. He got better after I heard Sparks slide under her sheets.

I thought she’d fallen asleep, so her voice startled me. “Ron?”

“Yeah?” I turned.

Across the room, beyond my single candle, her face was a ghostly blur. “Does Mooner say anything about me?”

“No.” Since she was curious, I said, “I could ask.”

“God, no!”

“Okay.”

In the middle of the next paragraph she said, “I guess that’s good. I don’t think I really want everyone to know how I rate.”

I put the Twain aside. “The other night, when you and Star Raven had gone off, Gorty was asking Mooner about who he’d—” I hunted the right phrase. “—been with. Mooner said giants don’t brag about their height.”

“Oh.” After a moment, she added, “Thank you.”

I shrugged. “It’s what he said.”

“I don’t know what I expected. It’s not like it was my first time.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stayed quiet.

“Someone hurt him. I guess I thought I’d grab him on the rebound.”

“That trick never works.” I didn’t speak from experience.

“No.” And, again after I thought the conversation had ended, she said, “Does he mention anyone? In particular?”

“No. Why?”

“I’d like to know who’s better than me. I mean, I know plenty of people who’re better than me, but I’d like to know exactly who Mooner’s big love is. Then I can tell myself it’s okay, ‘cause I’ll know who I can never compete with. That make sense?”

“No.”

“I think it’s Sai.”

“Why?”

“He had Leda.”

“Oh.”

“See, he couldn’t love me, ‘cause he knew he could have me anytime. And he had Leda already. So it must be Sai or someone I never met.”

Since she seemed to be waiting for an answer, I said, “Okay.”

“Sai’s so strong,” Sparks said. “She doesn’t need anyone. No wonder he wants her.”

“She’s a little heavy for my taste.”

“Mooner’s not obsessed with appearances.”

“Gee, sorry,” I said, pretending to be hurt so she wouldn’t notice that I was.

Sparks said, “I didn’t mean that like a comparison. He just isn’t. And she is pretty.

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