Page 64 of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

“Enough, enough,” Izzy said, holding up some paper with words written all over it. Not a book. This was loose-leaf and made at an awkwardly large size. “Have you read this?”

“Please, no horoscopes,” Tojin said, emptying what seemed to be half the bottle of hot sauce into his soup. They all appeared happy to move on, without looking back, from the topic of Painter and his ways.

“Horoscopes areforbiddenat this table,” Izzy said. “They’re a competing product. But this isn’t even adramascope. They’re launching the ship soon.”

“They said that last week,” Akane said.

“The shroud was too thick,” Izzy said. “But it’s happening for real this time.”

“I bet,” Masaka said softly, “they arevery. Very. Friendly.”

“They?” Yumi asked, glancing around as she slurped up a noodle. “What are we talking about?”

“The aliens?” Akane said. “Who live on the star?”

Yumi immediately started coughing. She drank half a cup of barley tea out of embarrassment, then spoke. “Thewhat?”

“Don’t they have newspapers where you’re from?” Izzy said. “We’ve been planning a launch! Of a ship that can travel the space between worlds. It’s been buildingforever. But it’s finally time for it to leave.”

“Friendly,” Masaka hissed, leaning forward. “Aliens areall friendly.”

“You really haven’t heard, Yumi?” Izzy said. “That’s wild. I need my notebook. This is good information for refining your dramascope…”

“Hush,” Akane said. “Not everyone reads the paper obsessively, Izzy.”

How did Akane remain so dainty when eating? Was Yumi supposed to be that way? It seemed hard to eat noodles without slurping. She’d never actually eaten in front of anyone but her attendants before.

“I’ll bet,” Izzy said, “the aliens arehot.”

Yumi started choking again.

“Wildly hot,” Izzy said, flopping back. “All the men dreamy. All the women sultry.”

“How many dramas involve aliens these days?” Tojin said, with a smile.

“Like half,” Izzy said. “And the aliens? Hot. All of them. Isn’t it natural they would be though?”

“Um…why?” Tojin asked.

“I’m going to date an alien or two,” Izzy said, lifting her chin. “It’s in my dramascope. I’d never date one who isn’t hot.”

Yumi was glad for the others and their baffled expressions, so that she knew it wasn’t onlyherthinking Izzy was strange. Even Masaka stared.

“Your logic, Izzy,” Akane said, “is…um…”

“Terrible?” Tojin offered.

“I was looking for something more politic.”

“Allegedlyterrible?”

“You’ll see,” Izzy said. “When I have both a handsome alien hunk and a curvy alien knockout fighting over me.”

“Excuse me,” Yumi said. “I need to…um…go. For a little bit. For something.”

She dashed off toward the bar, where Painter was chatting with Design. When she arrived, she found Design stretching something glowing between her fingers. Like a cord made oflight. Yumi momentarily forgot what she’d been about, instead staring at that strange sight. A glowing rope, whose ends vanished into nothing.

“Your spiritweb,” Design was saying, “knows what body is yours. It remains Connected to it, you see. You form Connections like that with everyone—and to a lesser extent everything—you’ve known. Nifty, eh!”

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