Usagi picked up one of the bunnies. “Each bunny is a sock with some stuffing and two beads for eyes. The socks were free; the cuffs were frayed. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with six hundred pairs of socks but free is free. We’re charging a quarter a game with a win ratio of four to one. I’m hoping to make close to a thousand dollars.”
It was a drawback of living in a commune large enough to take Usagi’s sprawling household of five women and their seven children. All the women pitched in money and time but it was Usagi that figured out how to make it all work. It would scare Law silly to have so many people dependent on her.
Law was good at rescuing damsels in distress. “If you want, we can rig up some kind of wood burner. They’re not that hard to make. I can get you a cord of firewood before it starts to snow. It would be good to have, anyhow, in case the power goes off.”
Usagi hugged her hard. “Thank you, Law. You’re a lifesaver.”
Law turned around to discover Bare Snow was passing out their fish. “What are you doing?”
“Little sister Moon Rabbit wanted a pesantiki but she didn’t have any money to play the game,” Bare Snow stated calmly. “And it would not be fair just to give one to her and not to the others. We have many. A few will not be missed.”
The children had found clear plastic drinking cups and stood huddled around the wagon.
Law could not say no. Bare Snow had spent hours catching the fish; she had the right to give some away. Bare Snow liked playing big sister; it gave her the family that she’d always wanted. Law suspected too that it wasn’t frivolous pretending. Moon Rabbit looked six years old when she was in her teens. If the children continued to age slowly, they’d need Bare Snow in a few decades.
The children “ooohed” and “ahhhed” over the little gleaming gold fish with large flowing fins.
“I’m sorry,” Law murmured to Usagi. She’d learned long ago that it was a bad thing to give pets to children. Parents hated you for it.
“It’s okay. I have a big aquarium somewhere in our basement. A biology student was throwing it out instead of taking it back to Earth. Free is free.”
Law felt a little less guilty.
Bare Snow’s long blue-black hair was up in Sailor Moon twin ponytails when they left Usagi’s booth. They found Tiffani still struggling to hang the decorations on her booth.
“What a stupid time to break my arm,” Tiffani complained.
“There’s a good time?” Law took the banner and tacked it firmly into place.
“Don’t make me hit you.” Tiffani raised a thick cast on her right arm. She’d painted it with roses and thorns to match the sleeve tattoo that it covered. “It will hurt both of us more than we want.”
“Are you going to need help to run your booth?” Law asked.
“Nah, once the decorations are up, it’s just collect the money, pass out nets, and wrap up winnings in plastic bags. I could do it in my sleep. Thanks for getting me fish. I would have been shit out of luck and fifty bucks.”
Tiffani smelled strongly of marijuana.
“You sure?” Law asked.
“What? Oh!” She sniffed herself. “That! I only wish I was high at the moment. The hospital wouldn’t give me anything for the pain. It’s either moonshine or weed. Marijuana isn’t any worse than Nyquil in terms of stuff like driving or cooking. Moonshine? Oh, that stuff kicks me on my ass.”
“Nothing for pain?”
“They’re saving it for when the fighting gets serious. I’m like ‘Serious? What are you calling all the bodies piled up on the sidewalks?’ And they’re like ‘That’s just oni dead. We don’t treat oni. We’re talking human causalities.’ What bullshit. Half of the EIA are oni. Whatever. I’m really hating this; the pain makes me a bitch on wheels. I’m going to be fun tonight with sixty zillion screaming little kids and drunk guys going ‘I’ll get you a freaking fish’ and looking like assholes because they can’t and being mad about it. After a while, I just want to stuff the fish down their throats.”
“Are you sure you don’t need help? I don’t want to be bailing you out of jail again. You would have been deported if Johnnie Be Good had pressed charges.”
“I am fine! And the pervert had that ass-kicking coming.”
Law had to agree to that.
“I don’t want to be high for this.” Tiffani leaned close to whisper. “So far both sides are leaving humans out of the fighting but I figure that’s only going to last so long. Beer, food and music in one place? Half of Pittsburgh is going to be here tonight. It makes for a damn big target.”
Law’s insides churned at the thought. According to the newspapers, the oni had kidnapped, tortured, raped, and eaten an unknown number of elf children. The Skin Clan troops fought on the sly, setting traps and using people as bait. She hated the idea of these people targeting the festival for no other reason than to pit the humans against the elves.
“I’ve got my escape route planned. I didn’t park over there.” Tiffani pointed toward the Hooters lot that served as main parking for the festival. Station Square’s five-storied garage was slated to be a makeshift beer hall for all the microbreweries. “The way I figure it, everyone’s going to either be running to their cars, or to the incline or to the light-rail and things will be all jammed up.” She shifted to point at the low chain-link fence that ran alongside Station Square. On the other side was the Elfhome main line. A second temporary fence had been erected beyond the tracks to protect people from jumpfish. “The train tracks are right there, close enough to touch. I parked downriver at the freight yard and walked up to here. If the oni attack, all I need to do is grab my cashbox and go. Sorry, fish.” She pretended to wave goodbye to the pesantiki. “You’re dead meat.”
Tiffani was right about the escape routes that the masses would take. Usagi would need to take the incline; it was the only direct way to get up to her place at the top of Mount Washington. There was a meandering back road on the other side of the ridge, but Usagi hadn’t brought a car at the festival.
Law shifted uncomfortably as the possible targets shifted closer to her heart. She wanted to rage out into the city and make sure that no harm came to her close friends. “You’ve got my number. If anyone causes any problems or acts weird or you think that something fishy might be in the works, call me.”
Ellen’s tiny-house lunch counter was sitting on prime real estate across the street from the parking garage. Her trailer had been tucked beside the porte-cochere of the old Sheraton Hotel. She’d set up picnic tables under the porch roof and the scent of a wood grill was floating up from the back.
“Oh, please tell me that you found chestnuts!” Ellen said in greeting.
“Of course I did. Fifty pounds.” Law lifted the five-gallon buckets out of the wagon. Elfhome and American chestnut trees had hybridized to create a larger, sweeter nut that ripened earlier. “I want my buckets back but I can wait until Monday.”
“Here, taste this.” Ellen held out a bratwurst in a bun.
It was an explosion of taste in Law’s mouth. “That’s good. Is that a honey mustard sauce? That’s really good. What kind of bread is that?”
“Bean flour,” Ellen cried. “I could not track down any wheat so I ground some dried navy beans. I’m allergic to wheat so I use it for myself all the time.”
“It’s good. Just different.”
“I know it’s good; I wouldn’t sell it if it wasn’t good. It’s just that people don’t like different; that’s why I wanted the chestnuts. I need to sell something to make up the cost of the booth.”
“People will buy it,” Law stated. “Pittsburghers will eat anything that doesn’t bite them back. The rest will be too drunk to notice.”