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Please let this be good, I prayed to the real God.
Please, please, please let this be a good distraction...
So I could still keep my word about not getting into trouble.
Chapter Four
Shiny bright lights of what seemed like a Chinese festival twinkled from a distance, and all thoughts of deus ex machina momentarily faded when a bit more squinting made me realize it was no mere
pop-up event I was looking at.
That was a whole freaking Chinatown ahead of us. An entire freaking town, sprouting out like a magical mushroom in the middle of Portland, and just thinking of it had me shaking my head in amazement. Was that place even real? As far as I could recall, the last time we had a local Chinatown was decades ago. So either this new Chinatown cropped up while I was in a coma...or...
I turned to Mary Priscilla, asking, "Are you seeing it, too?" As a former human with a third eye for ghosts, I'd become used to double-checking to ensure that what I was seeing was neither illusion nor specter.
"Chinatown?"
I gasped. "So you can see it!"
"I guess." Mary Priscilla sounded wary. "It wasn't there yesterday though, which is weird."
"It's not weird," I protested. "All that means is today is its grand opening or something."
The kid shook her head. "I don't think it's that simple—-"
"Of course it's that simple," I said airily. "Can't you act like an eight year old girl for once and just have fun?"
"Only if you act like the middle-aged woman that you are—-"
"That's below the belt, you brat!"
"—-and show some sense?"
"I am showing some sense here. It's called a sense of adventure—-"
"What about your sense of danger?" Mary Priscilla retorted. "That's an entire town coming out of nowhere—-"
"Exactly my point!"
The little girl blinked up at me. "It is?"
"We have an entire town to explore!"
Mary Priscilla groaned.
"Make that an entire magical town!"
The kid groaned again.
"I mean...can you just imagine how much magic was needed to make something like it?"
"More magic means more danger," the little girl said so gloomily I just had to shake my head at her. Honestly, this kid. She was just so cynical I wouldn't be surprised if she turned out to be Minos' sister from another mother.
An entire magical town to explore!
How could anyone resist such a thing?
"Saoirse?"
Certainly not I!
"Where are you going?"
"I'm just going to take a peek." I was already floating away as I spoke, and I silently thanked my lucky stars that I had decided to switch into my ghostly form before leaving the apartment. In today's era of security camera surveillance, safe "changing" areas in public were getting harder and harder to come by and—what the holy ghost?!
The brat had suddenly popped out in front of me, and I barely managed to keep myself from occupying her most personal space. "Mary Priscilla!" She knew how much I hated going through people, dead or alive. Most other ghosts had an easy time getting used to the process, but I didn't think I could ever adjust to how invasive possession felt, never mind if it was just a moment of me "passing through".
"What do you mean you're going to take a peek?" Mary Priscilla demanded.
"Uh...just that?"
The little girl shook her head. "I just don't have a good feeling about this—-"
"Fifteen minutes then," I said impulsively. "I promised Hadrian I'd be back in the Underworld before dinner, and..." I showed her my watch. "It's a quarter past six, which means we have fifteen minutes to spare. Fifteen minutes," I bargained. "And then we'll leave. Deal?"
Mary Priscilla started fidgeting. "I don't think—-"
"It's going to be fine, I promise!" And to end the dilly-dallying, I simply grabbed the little girl's icy hand and dragged her alongside me so together we could go into the light.
I mean, lights.
And boy did those lights keep getting brighter as we came closer. They shone so much harder and brighter than Rihanna's diamonds that by the time we were inches away from its entrance, I had this need to shield my gaze with a pair of sunnies.
The noise had grown exponentially as well, and it was a glorious mishmash of festival sounds. Aside from the usual chatter and laughter, there was also the heavy banging of gongs, the crackle and boom of fireworks overhead, and the clatter of plates and chopsticks from hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
I threw an excited smile over my shoulder at Mary Priscilla. "Isn't this great?"
The brat just looked at me.
Once a killjoy, always a killjoy.
As we passed under the giant arch marking the festival entrance, I couldn't help yelping in surprise when the pair of gargoyle-looking creatures resting on the arch suddenly roared as if welcoming its newest guests.
"That's incredible!"
"It's just stupid motion technology," Mary Priscilla muttered.
"Back to being Little Miss Party Pooper, aren't you?"
"I can't help it," she said sweetly. "Someone has to be an adult around here."
