Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Family 03 by Spirits That Walk in Shadow

Author:Spirits That Walk in Shadow [Shadow, Spirits That Walk in]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-27T12:50:26+00:00

We took our towels, toiletries, and clothes across the hall to the bathroom. We weren’t the only ones with the same idea, but the wait wasn’t too long. Obviously my new housemates had not gone to my brother Don’s school of Take-a-Long-Enough-Shower-to-Use-Up-All-the-Hot-Water-Before-Your-Sister-Gets-aChance.

Rugee had already seen me pee. Getting naked with him around my neck was only slightly more embarrassing. “Do you mind getting wet?” I whispered to Rugee after I perched my towel on top of the shower door and snicked the door shut.

Not at all.

So we took our first shower together. He wasn’t fond of shampoo washing over him as I rinsed my hair, but he only complained a little. I never soaped him directly. He liked the toweling-dry part.

Best of all, I was fine. I took a completely normal shower, got out, and got dressed without agonizing for half an hour over the clothes I’d chosen to wear.

While Jaimie dressed, her long dark hair waved in the breeze. An extremely localized breeze. The rest of the room was full of heavy, still air, dense with steam.

“Um,” I said.

Other women were standing in front of the steam-coated mirror, wiping small sections clear and using blow dryers.

Jaimie ran her fingers through her hair, held it out from her head. The breeze strummed it. I glanced at other women waiting in line to use the showers. They looked bleary-eyed as they clutched their shampoo, conditioner, shower gel bottles, washcloths, and towels. Most of the blow-drying women were too focused on their own heads to notice Jaimie, but you couldn’t count on that lasting, or could you?

“What?” Jaimie held out different portions of her hair.

“Don’t do that here,” I whispered.

“What?” she whispered back. “Air dry?”

I nodded.

“Oh.” She lowered her hands. Her still damp hair swung around her head and shoulders.

“We could just use the shower downstairs,” Harrison was saying as we came in. He sat at Jaimie’s desk. Josh was still on Jaimie’s bed. The blue mattress/blanket things Jaimie had made for them were bunched up on top of the wardrobes. “Nobody knows each other yet. They won’t know we don’t belong here.”

On my bed, Zilla was paging through all my orientation material and frowning. I felt nervous about her going through my stuff when she hadn’t asked me first. As more and more people showed up in our room, my sense of privacy kept shrinking. At home I had my own room. Here, I apparently didn’t even have my own bed.

None of this was happening without my consent. It wasn’t like Shaina.

I hung up my towel, then flopped onto my bed next to Zilla.

“You know the fire discipline for cleansing, don’t you?” Joshua asked Harrison. Jaimie played with her hair and the local breeze again.

“Why waste power?”

“Aren’t we supposed to stick with Kim? What if something happens to her while we’re downstairs? I guess maybe we could take real showers if we take turns. We have instant call links,” said Joshua.

“This is ridiculous,” I muttered to Rugee. “Now I have bodyguards? I’ve never been the center of attention like this before.

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