The Ghost of Drowned Meadow, page 23
In loving memory of my father, Richard C. Skovron.
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Interlude
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Interlude
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Interlude
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Interlude
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Interlude
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Interlude
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Author’s Note
Bonus Content: Excerpt from My Secret Dream of a Boring Life
About the Author
Copyright
The first time it happened, Morgan Calvino was rereading one of her favorite Japanese light novels, My Secret Dream of a Boring Life, Volume 1. She was stretched out on her bed, a half-full can of coconut seltzer on the small table beside her. A cool evening breeze drifted in through the open window, tickling her bare shins and feet.
This was probably the seventh or eighth time that Morgan had read the first volume of My Secret Dream of a Boring Life by Sensō Tori. She’d begun just after dinner, and was already at chapter four, where the protagonist, Zophia Zye the Night Queen, magically disguises herself as a human so that she can travel among them without frightening anyone. Naturally she brings along her loyal frost spirit, Zsa Zsa, who is now disguised as an adorable white kitten.
This chapter was one of Morgan’s favorites in the whole series. Zophia and Zsa Zsa are walking through the forest, still adjusting to their new human and cat forms, when they are set upon by a pack of wolflings. Of course, such pitiful monsters are nothing compared to the power of the Night Queen, but the human adventurer Kosuke and his friends happen along and mistakenly think she needs their help.
He was slim, with shaggy black hair, refined features, and an earnest expression.
“Hey, miss! Can you use a sword?”
I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. “Yes, I have had some instruction in swordsmanship …”
“Great! Feel free to help out!”
Then he tossed a small sword at my feet.
TAP
I looked down at the blade. It was easily the most pathetic weapon I’d ever seen. The well maintained. The binding was frayed, and the flimsy steel was edged with rust.
Then I looked back at the human, who was smiling innocently at me.
“He’s serious,” I muttered to Zsa Zsa. “He actually thinks he’s helping me.”
“So it would seem, my queen.”
TAP
“And now he’s waiting for … gratitude?”
“That would be traditional under the circumstances as he understands them, Your Majesty.”
“We shall see how well this human understands the circumstances once I turn this entire meadow to ash!”
TAP
Morgan closed her book. What was that tapping sound? It was like the steady annoying drip from a faucet, except coming from outside her window.
She leaned across her bed and looked out into the darkness. It wasn’t raining. In fact, the purple night sky was completely clear. So where was the sound coming from?
Then she realized that the tapping had stopped.
She peered across the street to the moonlit harbor. She could just make out yachts dotting the black, rippling water. She could hear the faint ting of the rope lines that knocked against their aluminum masts as the boats swayed in the wind. She could hear the distant bark of a dog. But she no longer heard the dripping sound.
“Weird …”
She leaned back into her bed, fluffed her pillow, then opened the book to where she’d left off. It was the first meeting between Zophia Zye the Night Queen and Kosuke the human. Since Morgan knew how close the two characters would become in later volumes, she really enjoyed going back and laughing at how awkward they were together at first.
The thing was, Kosuke didn’t realize that Zophia was the Night Queen in disguise, so he was just treating her like she was a regular human girl. And even though Zophia was trying to act like a regular human girl, she didn’t really know how to do that yet, so she kept getting offended that she wasn’t being given the proper respect:
I decided I would show this foolish human just how much of an insult his pathetic sword was. I began to cast the tenth-tier spell Incandescent Blaze of Lava’s Birth. My hands rose to form the intricate movements, and my mouth opened to speak the prayer of Kagutsuchi the fire god.
TAP
“I hate to interrupt when you are in such a beautifully righteous rage, my queen,” Zsa Zsa said mildly. “But I suspect that once you cast a spell in the lost language of the gods, this human and his companions will no longer believe you to be one of them, and everything we have done to get to this point will have been for naught.”
TAP
“But I can’t just let him think he’s saving me,” I protested. “As though I’m some helpless—”
TAP
“Okay, seriously …” Morgan groaned as she once more closed her book and looked out the window. The sky remained clear.
The sound was incredibly annoying. But where was it coming from? A dripping air-conditioning unit, maybe? But it wasn’t hot enough for that anymore. And now that she thought about it, this house had central heating and air, so window AC units weren’t even a thing around here.
Maybe she was just hearing things. After all, she still hadn’t gotten used to how quiet it was out on Long Island. In Brooklyn there had always been background noise. Cars, buses, trains, horns honking, people shouting, alarms going off. It had all mixed together into a steady drone that she could wrap around herself like a cozy blanket. She hadn’t realized how comforting it had been until she lost it. Now it was one of the many things she missed since moving out of the city.
Not that Port Jefferson wasn’t nice. The harbor was pretty, with all its fancy sailboats bobbing around. The nearby downtown was cute, with little shops and restaurants. She also liked having a house instead of a tiny apartment. And she had to admit that in general, things smelled a whole lot better. But she even missed some of those Brooklyn smells, like the food from old Mr. Zhao’s restaurant on the corner.
Morgan sighed and turned back to her book. At least she still had the Night Queen. She gazed down at the manga-style illustration on the cover, which showed Zophia Zye in her true oni form: tall, regal, with blue skin and long, white, jagged hair. She wore an elegant black gown and a cape with a high collar. Morgan didn’t think it was possible for someone to be cooler or more beautiful in this world or any other than the Night Queen.
Of course, Morgan had already read all ten books in the My Secret Dream of a Boring Life series, and the manga adaptation as well. But since the move to Long Island, she’d found that rereading those books, especially the first few volumes, made her feel a little less lonely.
She was just getting ready to dive back into the world of the Night Queen when she heard her mother’s voice from the doorway.
“Don’t forget it’s a school night.”
Marissa Zeggini was medium height, with dark wavy hair like Morgan’s and the piercing gaze of a trial lawyer. She’d changed out of her suit after dinner and now wore a comfy set of yellow pajamas. Her arms were folded across her chest and one eyebrow was raised. What she was really saying was, Don’t you think it’s time to go to bed?
Morgan sighed. “I know, I know.”
She closed the window, put her book on the bedside table, and slid under her covers.
Her mother came in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Good night, sweetie.”
“Did you hear a loud dripping sound?” Morgan asked.
Her mother frowned. “When?”
“Just now.”
Her mom tucked her in, even though she didn’t need it. “Sometimes when you feel lonely, your mind plays tricks on you.”
“I’m not lonely,” Morgan protested, even though she definitely was.
Her mother smiled gently and smoothed Morgan’s hair back from her forehead. “Morgan, sweetie, maybe if you tried a little harder to make friends at school, you’d feel better.”
“I do try. It’s just that nobody’s into the same stuff that I’m into. All they ever talk about is clothes and boys and wakeboarding. I don’t even know what wakeboarding is.”
“It’s like waterskiing, but with a board instead of skis,” her mom said. “It’s actually a lot of fun.”
“Well, I’ve never done it, and they all have.”
“I’m sure you’ll find things you have in common with them if you give them a chance. Maybe some of them even like that Night Queen series you love so much.”
Her mother shrugged. “Hey, you never know. They might just not obsess over it all the time like you and Madison.”
“I guess …”
Morgan didn’t want to talk about Madison. She didn’t want to think about that traitor. Madison said they’d always be best friends no matter what, but she hadn’t responded to Morgan’s texts in weeks. Morgan’s mom said she might just be busy with the beginning of school, but Morgan knew better. If Madison had time to post memes on the Night Queen chat server, she had time to talk to her “best friend.” But since Morgan didn’t live in Brooklyn anymore, maybe she wasn’t worth the effort now.
“Morgan, I know this move hasn’t been easy for you,” her mom said. “But that’s all the more reason to try your hardest. I promise, once you have some friends, you’ll love this place. You just need to make the effort.”
It was true that Morgan hadn’t tried all that hard to fit in with the girls at her new school, mostly because they seemed dumb and boring. But maybe her mom was right. Maybe she wasn’t giving them a chance.
“Okay, fine. Tomorrow, I’ll try for real.”
If nothing else, maybe she’d stop hearing things.
Zophia Zye the Night Queen and her faithful servant Zsa Zsa knew almost nothing about humans when they first visited the human realm. But because they met Kosuke so early in their adventures, it wasn’t a huge problem. He was always there to help them learn how to fit in.
Sadly Morgan hadn’t met anyone as nice as Kosuke on her first day, so adapting to the culture of Port Jefferson Middle School had proved to be difficult. Part of the problem, she knew, was that she was a little awkward. She didn’t know what to say a lot of the time. The first few days she didn’t really talk to anyone, and every day after it felt a little more daunting to break that ice. Before classes began, she sat at her desk in homeroom and read her book. At lunch, she ate her sandwich alone and read her book. Maybe it was silly, but she’d had this fantasy that someone would see her reading, and that’s all it would take: You’re a Night Queen fan? Cool, me too!
But nope. Nobody talked about it, or even seemed to know what it was.
The other problem was that Port Jeff Middle was a lot smaller than her school in Brooklyn, and as far as she could tell, the other kids had all grown up together. Her classmates had known one another since forever, and probably so had their parents and grandparents too. Nobody was looking to make a new friend because nobody needed one. There weren’t even any cool loner types like she’d seen in books and shows.
Why was real life always so disappointing?
When she walked into the lunchroom that day, she felt a strong desire to claim her usual table in the corner and plunge back into the Night Queen’s far less disappointing world. But she had resolved to try harder to make friends. So she forced herself to sit at the same table as some of the girls from her class.
Of course they were talking about wakeboarding.
“This might be the last good weekend for it,” Hannah was saying.
Hannah Meyer seemed to be the leader of this little group. She had suntanned skin and brown hair with lighter streaks that seemed so natural they came either from the sun or a really fancy hair salon. She had an athletic build and the confidence to go with it.
“Can your dad take us out, Hannah?” asked Piper.
Piper Morrison had long, straight blond hair and was really pretty. She probably could have been a model, except she was always hunched over and nervous, which kind of ruined it.
Hannah shook her head. “I already asked my dad. He said he has to go into the city tomorrow.”
“I’ll ask my mom,” said Tressa. “I bet she’d take us out.”
Tressa Witherspoon was one of the few Black kids in their class. She had short kinky hair that fanned out in a cool way, and one time Morgan had seen her doodling anime characters in a notebook, so she thought there might be friendship potential. But as far as she could tell, Tressa hadn’t even noticed Morgan’s existence.
So Morgan was genuinely surprised when Tressa suddenly turned to her.
“Hey, new girl. You’re from Brooklyn, right? Do they have wakeboarding in Brooklyn?”
My name is Morgan Calvino, which you should know, considering we’ve been in every class together for weeks now, she thought. But tempting as that was to say, this was her chance to get into the conversation, and a snotty reply would not help.
“Uh, no, I’ve never been wakeboarding,” she said instead. “But I hear it’s fun.”
“Wait.” Piper looked stunned. “Like, never-never?”
“Yeah …”
Morgan was hoping this might prompt them to invite her along. But no.
“Anyway,” said Hannah. “Tress, ask your mom after school and text us.”
“Yup,” said Tressa. “Should I invite Jake and them?”
“But the boys always clown around,” protested Piper.
Tressa grinned at her. “They’re just trying to impress you.”
Piper only nervously rubbed her arms and frowned down at her veggie wrap.
“It might be the last weekend,” said Hannah. “You should invite them.”
There was a pause in the conversation that would have been the perfect moment to invite Morgan as well. But instead they started talking about what they would wear, since the boys were coming. Morgan tried to pay attention, but some of the boys weren’t in their class so she was only sort of able to follow it.
Then Hannah said, “Oh, you know who I saw last night at the yacht club? Joel Applebaum.”
“No way,” said Tressa. “Is he still a creepy weirdo?”
“He’s homeschooled now, so what do you think?” Hannah turned to Morgan. “Hey, new girl, don’t you live near him?”
“Who?”
Piper gave Morgan a sympathetic look. “Oh, that sucks.”
“What sucks?” Morgan asked, starting to get worried.
“Don’t freak the girl out,” Tressa told them. Then she turned back to Morgan. “He’s harmless. If he ever tries to talk to you, just ignore him and he’ll go away.”
“Is there … something wrong with him?”
“Other than being a creepy weirdo?” asked Hannah. “No, I guess not. Have fun hanging out with him.”
“Uh …” Morgan didn’t even know how to respond to that.
“If you meet him, you’ll understand,” said Piper.
The conversation moved on to other things, but Morgan was still stuck on Joel Applebaum. What did “creepy weirdo” even mean? Tressa said he was harmless, so at least there was that. But whatever was wrong with him, clearly she would have to avoid him if she wanted to be friends with these girls.
Volume two of My Secret Dream of a Boring Life was a lot of fun. Zophia Zye and Zsa Zsa, still in disguise as human and kitten, had joined Kosuke’s adventuring party, although they had to make sure they didn’t give themselves away. Sometimes they would get confused about human behavior, but Zophia could usually pass that off as being a foreigner who didn’t know local customs. Other times, they would all be on a quest together, and Zophia would accidentally display too much of her incredible power, and it was funny to watch her try to cover her mistakes.
But in the end, it was actually Zsa Zsa who unintentionally outed them. There was a sweet, redheaded ranger girl in their party named Akari who was obsessed with kitten Zsa Zsa. Toward the end of the book, there was a scene where it appeared as though Zsa Zsa was in danger, and Akari completely freaked out because she still thought he was a helpless kitten:
We hadn’t counted on the harpies outflanking us. One snuck in behind, grabbed Zsa Zsa by his fluffy white scruff with her talons, then swooped into the air.
“Zsa Zsa!” Akari screamed in panic.
Whether Zsa Zsa was willing to admit it or not, I was certain that he had grown fond of the red-haired human. A mere harpy posed little threat to an elder frost spirit, even in kitten form. So it was probably the frightened tone in Akari’s voice as she shouted his name that caused him to overreact.
TAP
His kitten shape transformed in an instant, and the now-terrified harpy found herself clutching a sinuous and jagged elder frost spirit.
He bared his icy teeth at the beast in a ferocious smile, then cleanly sliced her in half with a flick of his tail.
