Goddess of Gotham (16 page)

‘You OK, Kumari?’ asked Hannah.

‘You bet,’ said Kumari, smiling at her friends.

‘Quick, the Badmash Bag,’ said Charley. They were nearly at the turnstiles. Kumari crammed Badmash into his special carrier, complete with chocolate treats. Now that he was getting
bigger, Badmash was harder to conceal. Another problem with being in the World Beyond -Badmash was growing quicker. Back home he’d be a baby vulture for ages – out here it was
different. It was Hannah again who had come up with the solution: a Kate Spade tote stolen from her aunt.

‘I borrowed it,’ Hannah insisted. ‘Besides, she’ll never notice.’

Hannah’s aunt lived on the Upper East Side and wore more labels than a baggage carousel. She worked for some fancy magazine and considered Hannah’s mom ‘a failure.’ Only
failure wasn’t the word she used; it was more like ‘disappointment.’ Kumari thought Hannah’s mom was lovely -she had wild hair and read a lot.

The bag was the perfect size. Badmash liked to snooze in its cosy confines. Kumari left its zipper open a little, afraid he would suffocate. It certainly got him past Ms LaMotta, who was no big
fan of Badmash. Actually, Ms LaMotta was no big fan of anyone. She ruled the school with a rod of iron. At least, she tried to rule with a rod of iron. At Rita Moreno its effect was more that of a
rusty nail. Only that morning she had stopped Kumari in the corridor.

‘Show me your hall pass, Kumari.’

‘My hall pass?’ Oh yes,
those
things. Kumari shrugged.

Ms LaMotta looked at her and sighed. ‘I’ll let it go this time, Kumari. Oh and Kumari . . . ’

‘Yes, Ms LaMotta?’

‘Good work on your science fair entry’

‘Uh, thanks, Ms LaMotta.’ She’d noticed!
Oh my god.

A great big glow filled Kumari as she relived the moment.

‘What are you smiling at?’ asked Hannah and then she leapt up. ‘We’re here!’

As they emerged onto Fifth Avenue, Kumari craned her neck. Concrete citadels, stretching skywards. Suddenly she was back there, running through the crowd.

‘I can’t
believe
you’ve never been Downtown,’ said Hannah.

Actually, she had but that was another story she was keeping to herself. Her desperate race through the parade. That thing with Santa Claus.

‘Are you OK?’ asked Charley. ‘You’ve got, like, this funny look on your face.’

Kumari grinned at Charley. ‘Not as funny as
your
face, girlfriend.’

Laughing at one another, they linked arms and strode along. A few steps later, Kumari stopped dead.

‘Wow! What is this?’

‘That’s FAO Schwarz. It’s a
toy store,’
said Hannah.

A toy store? It was more like a palace. The place glistened with expense. Inside, she could see the ceiling twinkling blue. There were even two soldiers guarding the entrance.

Nodding to them, Kumari swept through the gleaming glass doors, Hannah and Charley giggling behind. Once inside, she stared in amazement. This was no toy store. This was paradise. Mile upon mile
of
things
arrayed enticingly all around. Enormous stuffed jungle animals looking on benignly from behind thick ropes. A life-size snow leopard stretched out, its eyes all too real. It
reminded Kumari of home. She swallowed the thought. A delicious smell wafted towards her. Following it, she found an ice cream parlour to die for; alongside it, more candy than she had ever seen,
acres of shiny wrappers.

Even Hannah and Charley were getting excited, now they had forgotten about acting cool. Stuffing candy into paper sacks, they gorged as they drifted round the shop.

‘Oh my god, moving stairs!’ said Kumari.

Hannah and Charley exchanged another look. ‘That’s an
escalator,’
said Hannah kindly.

‘I knew that!’ said Kumari.

She could hear music from the top of the moving stairs. Stepping onto them gingerly, she held on tight. At the top, she gasped in astonishment. There was a piano so big that people were dancing
across it! It looked so much fun she just had to join in. Leaping aboard, she started to twirl round on the keys. A dancer tapped up to her.

‘This is
our
show, sweetie,’ he spat as, deftly, he tripped her up.

A man in a blue jacket grabbed her and hauled her down. Hannah and Charley were doubled up, in fits.

‘You get to dance on the piano
after
the performance,’ growled the man.

‘Come on,’ said Charley. ‘Let’s split.’

Another wobbly ride on the escalator back through the wonderland of toys. On the way out, Kumari spotted something: a box with
Magic Set
written across it, a rabbit adorning the lid. What
had rabbits got to do with magic? She’d never come across anything quite so stupid.

‘A magic set? Boring,’ said Charley.

‘My brother had one,’ offered Hannah.

‘Magic? That’s not magic,’ declared Kumari.

‘You some kind of expert?’ said Charley.

Actually, I am,
thought Kumari.
But I must not, cannot tell them that. Otherwise they won’t be my friends. They’ll think I’m totally weird.

Out loud, she said, ‘Nah! Just think it looks dumb, that’s all. Come to think of it, that rabbit looks a bit like Mr Johnson.’

She pulled a Jabba Johnson face and the other two collapsed. Still giggling, they burst out through the glass doors and skipped together down the street, skidding to an abrupt halt outside
another fancy store as Charley shouted, ‘In here!’

She disappeared through the revolving door and Kumari attempted to follow suit. Somehow she ended up back on the street.

‘Whoops! Must have pushed too hard.’

‘You are a
lunatic,’
grinned Hannah.

Phew, she’d got away with that one too. First the escalator, now the revolving door. The World Beyond was still full of obstacles, most of them designed to trip her up. Kumari looked for
Charley. She was heading for the cosmetic counters, running the gauntlet of women with perfume sprays. They looked decidedly scary.

‘Try this,’ said a woman, dowsing Kumari in a smelly cloud.

‘Eugh!’ said Kumari. ‘That stinks.’

The woman glared.

‘It’s
Divine,’
she said.

‘Whatever,’ said Kumari. The woman didn’t know the meaning of the word.

The woman stared at her blankly, her red-glossed lips slack.

Ahead, Charley was sticking her fingers into little pots, rubbing all sorts of colours on her face. As Kumari and Hannah approached, a saleswoman glided up and skewered Charley with a
patronising stare.

‘Can I help you?’

To Kumari’s ears, it sounded like she meant the opposite. Behind her glacial smile was an icy tone that said,
Beat it, teen scum.

Charley took it in her stride. ‘I’d like a makeover,’ she announced.

The saleswoman raised a perfectly plucked brow.

‘We’re not doing those today’

‘But it says here you are,’ said Charley, pointing to a placard on the counter.

‘Well we’re not,’ snapped the saleswoman. ‘Can I help you with anything else?’

‘Come on, Charley’ said Hannah. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’

Charley’s mouth took on the stubborn pout Kumari knew all too well.

‘I’d like a M.A.K.E.O.V.E.R. please,’ she said, very slowly and clearly. The saleswoman did not flinch.

‘Go away, little girl.’

Little girl?! Kumari could not believe her ears. She saw the flush rise up Charley’s cheeks. Worse, she saw her shoulders droop in defeat and her eyes fill with tears. How dare this person
humiliate her friend? She’d show her humiliation. Without thinking, Kumari raised her arm, closed her eyes and began to chant. Power No 8, she could do that. Maybe it was a sugar rush from
the candy but she forgot all about
fitting in.
All she knew was that Charley was hurt. And no one did that to her friends.

‘Oh. My. God,’ she heard Hannah gasp.

She could feel the whirlwind begin to rise, stirring the hairs on the back of her neck. Opening her eyes, Kumari saw cosmetics darting through the air, whizzing towards the saleswoman’s
face. Mascara scored black lines down her cheeks, lipstick smeared scarlet streaks across her chin. A pot of cream dumped itself all over her hair. Green shadow applied itself to her ears. A fluffy
brush inserted itself into the woman’s gaping mouth and stuck out like a squirrel’s tail. A huge can of hairspray whipped round and round then covered her in its contents like glue.

Excellent – it had worked. Almost too well, in fact. For a split second Kumari felt a pang of guilt. But the woman had been really mean. And then, like a large, fluffy dart, Badmash came
flying. Somehow he had worked his way out of the bag and was intent on adding the final touch. Snatching a tub of glitter from the counter, he hurled it into the air. It flew up and then drifted
down, covering the saleswoman in a rainbow layer of sparkle. It might have looked pretty on its own but, with the rest, it was a disaster.

The saleswoman let out a muffled, ‘Gnnnh!’

All around, people were staring. With a sick feeling, Kumari realised what she’d done. All those months of acting normal, hoping to fit in, wasted for a few seconds of revenge. The chant
died in her throat as she dropped her arm. Instantly, the cosmetics fell back down. One or two customers clapped and cheered. Grabbing Badmash, she shoved him back in his bag.

‘Come on,’ she said, ‘we’re leaving.’

They left the saleswoman looking like some kind of crazy clown and raced for the exit. All the way out, the other two said nothing. She could feel them darting her worried looks. Once on the
sidewalk, she stopped.

‘Look, I’m a goddess,’ she announced.

‘A
goddess?
!’ Charley snorted.

‘Oh, come
on,’
said Hannah.

She looked at them steadily. Charley’s face began to cloud.

‘You mean it, don’t you?’ she said. ‘You really think you’re a goddess.’

‘I
am
a goddess,’ said Kumari.

‘Sure you are,’ said Hannah. ‘Just like I’m a supermodel.’

They both looked at Hannah, all curvaceous five foot two of her.

‘See what I mean?’ Hannah shrugged.

‘You mean you’re, like, a sex goddess?’ said Charley. ‘Y’know, like in all the magazines.
How to be a Sex Goddess. Let Your Inner Goddess Out.’

‘No,’ said Kumari. ‘I mean, like I’m a real goddess.’

‘Oh, come on,’ said Charley. ‘What are you, some kind of street magician?’

‘I told you,’ said Kumari, exasperated. Not even her best friends would believe her!

They trudged to the subway in silence. Neither of them would meet her eye. All the way uptown, they studiously stared at their hands. As they exited at their stop, Kumari tried one last
time.

‘We can still be friends, right?’

‘Uh, s-sure,’ stammered Hannah. Charley said nothing. Kumari watched them walk away and felt a pain shoot through her heart. The pain stayed in her chest, aching as she wandered
home. Dismally, she realised she had broken her rule. She was all alone. Luckily, no kidnappers appeared. Instead, she saw someone else. Someone who also thought she was weird.
Chico.
And
he, too, was on his own.

‘Hey . . . ’ Kumari half-smiled.

Chico kind of mumbled something about just seeing Hannah and Charley. Then he was gone, passing her by. Just like all her other friends. Fat tears rolled up from under her eyelids and spilled
down her ashen face. All her life she had wanted friends and now they were lost. She was friendless once more. She simply could not bear it. A muffled squawk sounded from the bag.

‘At least I’ve got you,’ whispered Kumari.

But, as much as she loved Badmash, it was no longer enough. She needed her friends back. Apart from Ma and the girls, they were all she had. And then it came to her in a flash, a bolt of
lightning to the brain. She knew what she had to do. Had known for a long time, in fact.

What was the use in being a goddess if she was never going to get back home?
Face it, Kumari. There is no way back to the Kingdom. The World Beyond is your world now. You have to make your
life here.
At least if she chose to become 100% mortal she could live out a normal span. And
be
normal. Truly fit in, just like she’d always wanted. She was sick of being different
from her friends. Today’s slip-up made her feel more alone than ever. If she became mortal, she could finally be one of them. She could stop pretending, because she really would be just like
them, and just like the people who had become her family. CeeCee and LeeLee were like the sisters she had never had and Ma did her best to be her mother.

Renouncing her Powers would be one huge step. Vast. Immense. Scary. But things could not go on as they were. She needed her friends.

Before she could change her mind, Kumari turned and ran back to the subway. She still had time before Ma got home. She could just about get there and back. All the way back Downtown, she talked
to herself non-stop to keep the doubts at bay. Not out loud, of course. Couldn’t risk anyone else thinking she was nuts. Fa la la la la. Fiddly dee. At last, here was her stop.

34th Street for the Empire State Building. She gazed up and up.

The tallest building in Manhattan, it was perfect for her purposes. She rode the elevator to the Observatory. The ticket cost nearly all the money she had left. This was so important, though.
She hoped Ma would forgive her. She would just have to sweep some more floors, buy Ma a late birthday present. Stepping out on to the promenade, the view swam, dizzying, towards her.

New York City, laid out beneath her feet. It felt like she was on top of the world. No time to waste, though. She would have to find a quiet corner. Groups of people came and went. Finding a
moment alone seemed impossible. A party of tourists snapped away, taking endless pictures. At last, they wandered off to the next photo-op. All of a sudden, she was on her own.

Seizing her chance, Kumari threw open both arms and howled to the heavens. The Renunciation Rite had been drummed into her since she was a child, in case of emergencies. Not even she could mess
it up. Or at least she hoped not.