Even and Odd

by Sarah Beth Durst

  Inside, Fratelli’s was dark, and only the shadows of the cream cheese case and the shelves were visible. Even didn’t see any movement, and the bagel shelves appeared to be empty, which was tragic.

  She wondered where Mr. Fratelli was. He had a daughter who went to school in the magic world. With the gateway not working, he wouldn’t be able to contact her. He must have been worried.

  She tried to convince herself she wasn’t worried about Mom.

  As they rounded the corner, Even saw Mom’s car parked in the employee lot, and she wondered if Mom had any idea there was something wrong on this side of the border. If they were lucky, everything would be all back to normal, including Even’s non-skunky self, before Mom even thought about coming home.

  Odd braked and dismounted. She leaned the bike against a dumpster. “We made it.”

  “Can I take off the cloak?” Jeremy asked. “It’s itchy.”

  “No one can see us back here,” Even reassured him. “That’s why the gateway is here. Not visible from either the street or the parking lot.” She waved at the brick wall—the empty brick wall, where the gateway was supposed to be.

  Guess that explains why no one can get through, she thought.

  She shivered, and the shiver ruffled all her fur. What had happened to the gateway? She’d never heard of it just disappearing.

  Beside them, Jeremy shook off his invisibility cloak and used his teeth and nose to stuff it into his satchel. Even hopped out of the basket onto the ground. Sniffing the air as if she could sniff out the missing gateway, she inhaled the sour stench of garbage. Shaking her head, she sneezed, trying to get the stench—worse than anything she’d ever smelled—out of her sensitive skunk nostrils.

  Much taller than they were, Jeremy stuck his head into the dumpster. “Whoa, this is cool. You know, in the magic world, we don’t have trash because of the pixies. They eat it. Pixies eat everything. They’re worse than rats. At least rats don’t have wings. Well, most of them.”

  “You have rats with wings?” Even said, momentarily distracted from staring at the empty space where the gateway was supposed to be. How many other creatures were there in the magic world that she’d never heard of? She’d peppered her parents with questions over the years, but there was still so much she didn’t know.

  “Where’s the gateway?” Odd asked.

  That pulled Even’s attention back to where it was supposed to be.

  “It’s usually—” Even was going to say right here and nod pointedly at the blank brick wall, but then, suddenly, in the time between Odd’s question and her answer, it was there: a shimmering between the bricks, as if they were held together by glitter glue instead of mortar. “Huh, it looks fine.”

  There were multiple gateways throughout the world, existing at fixed points, such as behind Fratelli’s Express Bagels. On the other side, in Firoth, they were part of the border itself, embedded in an otherwise impenetrable wall of mist. In the mundane world, you could always recognize a gateway by the way it sparkled. And here it was, sparkling.

  “What does this mean?” Jeremy asked. “Is it working again? Is everything okay? Can I go home?”

  Could it be that simple? Had the gateway fixed itself?

  “Odd, try to do something magical,” Even said.

  Squinching her face in concentration, Odd focused on the dumpster. Even held her breath as a half-eaten bagel rose out of the trash. It wobbled in the air, but it was undoubtedly floating. Exhaling, she cheered.

  The bagel crashed back into the dumpster as Odd’s concentration broke.

  “Sorry,” Odd said. “I lost it.”

  “Not the point.” Even shook her tail in excitement. “You did magic!” Whatever was wrong seemed to have fixed itself. This was excellent news! “Transform me back into myself.”

  Odd hesitated. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  Even hopped from paw to paw. “Just try. I know you can do it! Just picture me as me—not, you know, as a skunk or a snake or whatever.” If she could return home as herself, then they could go on with everything as usual. Dad would be so happy. She could be the one to tell him, Frank, and the elven high priestess that the gateway was fixed. Or she and Odd could tell them together. Sisters united, triumphant!

  Taking a deep breath, Odd focused on her.

  Even felt her skin tingle. Her fur began to vibrate. Yes! She’s doing it!

  Her fur smoothed, and Even twisted, trying to see as much of herself as she could. Her own skin should be appearing . . . She felt herself stretch and thin, lengthening as if she were play dough pushed through a tube. Scales burst out over her body, and her legs were sucked up into her belly. She felt as if her arms were tied too tight to her sides and her legs were glued together. Lying on the ground, she looked up at Odd. Her tongue slid back and forth between two snake fangs. She shouldn’t have said the word “snake.” “Maybe try again?” she suggested. “Pleasssssssse?”

  Odd’s hands flew to her mouth in horror. “I’m so sorry! I can fix this. Maybe.” Concentrating again, she began to tremble, as if she were squeezing every muscle in her body.

  Even felt the familiar tickling. Limbs burst out of her body, and the scales merged into smooth skin. She felt herself rising up onto four legs, higher and higher. A shimmering white hide covered her body. Her forehead ached as a horn burst out from the center of it.

  Now Jeremy’s exact height, she stared into his eyes.

  “Wow,” he said.

  Reflected in his eyes was a matching unicorn.

  “You look awesome.”

  Twisting her head, Even saw her unicorn body, gleaming white. She felt a heaviness in the center of her forehead. Her horn? “I can’t stay like this. There’s only one invisibility cloak.” She couldn’t cross the street looking like a unicorn, as cool as that was, and she didn’t relish the idea of spending the night hiding behind the bagel store. “One more try, Odd?”

  Odd was concentrating hard, with her hands clenched by her sides and her face squinched up. “I don’t think I can do it! I’m so sorry!”

  “Just one more try. Please?”

  Again, Odd concentrated. Even felt the tingle yet again as she shrank rapidly back down toward the pavement. Her pelt grew, lengthening to long black-and-white fur. Her hooves reshaped into paws, and her horselike tail fluffed out into a skunk tail.

  Odd slumped against the dumpster. “I’m really sorry, Even.”

  She should have known better than to ask. Odd never practiced, and this was the result. Shuddering, Even remembered how it had felt to be an armless and legless snake. If only it was an even day! she thought. “Actually, this might be your best skunk yet—this is definitely your magical specialty,” Even said, trying to cheer her up.

  Odd let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah. As if that’s a skill I’ll ever need.”

  “I think you made my tail even more magnificent than ever. And things could be a lot worse.” Shimmering, the gateway still looked like it was supposed to. And at least Odd’s magic was as functional as it ever was. Everything was fixed! Probably. Unless it wasn’t. “How do we know it’s really fixed? I mean, it looks okay, but what if it’s not?”

  Jeremy pranced anxiously. “What if it just looks like it’s working and you step through and hit the brick wall? Or what if it sends you to the wrong place, like the top of a mountain or bottom of an ocean? Or what if it turns you into an avocado?”

  “It can’t turn you into an avocado,” Even said. “It’s a door.”

  “Well, it could still be broken.”

  That much was true.

  All three of them stared at the gateway, hoping it would do something to prove everything really was back to normal. She didn’t want to rush home with the good news and then find out that it still wouldn’t let anyone pass. She could just imagine what the elf high priestess would say about her then. It would be worse than “foolish” and “frivolous.” But if Even could find out whether the gateway was operational or not, that co
uld be useful.

  There was, of course, one way to prove everything was back to normal.

  “We could test it,” Even said.

  Odd reacted exactly as Even expected her to. “What? No! Absolutely not!”

  “I don’t want to go back to Dad and the customers, say it’s fixed, and then find out we’re wrong.” A hero would see the task all the way through. Not that she was a hero yet, but still . . . If she wanted to be one someday, she should practice acting like one.

  “Admit it,” Odd said, “you just want to see the magic world.”

  That wasn’t it! Okay, it was a little bit that. But her curiosity was far from the only reason. “I don’t just want to see the magic world!” Even felt her tail fluffing up, and she took a deep breath. No spraying, she ordered herself. The air already stank enough from the dumpster. “Look, if we go home and say, ‘It’s working!’ and we’re right, then we’ve done something useful. But if we go home and say, ‘I don’t know, maybe it’s fixed; we went all the way there but didn’t test it,’ then who does that help?”

  “It doesn’t have to be you,” Odd said. “Let Jeremy go through. He can report back.”

  Even opened her mouth to object, but she couldn’t think of an argument. Asking him to test the gateway was the logical choice. Sure, she wanted to see the magic world, but she wanted to do the right thing even more. “Jeremy—”

  “Oh no. If I make it home, I definitely can’t come back,” Jeremy said. He gave a little shudder, shaking his mane. “I’m not supposed to be here in the first place. Besides, what if it doesn’t work? Or what if it does work and my parents are waiting for me on the other side? What if they confiscate my Farmcats cards? What if—”

  “All we want is for you to check—” Odd began.

  Cutting her off, Even said, “It’s okay. He doesn’t have to do it. I’ll cross, see if it works, and be back before either of you even miss me.” She trotted toward the shimmering brick wall. She’d just take a peek at the other world. One peek. And then she’d return.

  “You could run into trouble,” Odd said. “It’s an odd day. You don’t have magic. I’ll do it.”

  She had a point, but . . . “I’m the one training to be a hero.” And it was Even’s idea. That made it feel like it was her responsibility. “I’ll do it.”

  “We do it together,” Odd said.

  Even liked the sound of that. “Together.”

  Odd picked up Even and held her in her arms. “Coming, Jeremy? You said you wanted to go home.” She took a step toward the gateway. Then another. Even began quivering with a mix of nervousness and excitement.

  What if it didn’t work?

  It has to work! she thought. After all, Odd had magic again. Even told herself there wasn’t anything to worry about. This was just a test to be sure. We’ll cross the border, confirm that everything is okay, and come back. Once they were home, Dad would be able to de-skunkify her. Everything would be back to normal soon.

  Odd halted. “Maybe this is a bad idea. I don’t think I—”

  “Together!” Jeremy cried. He bumped into her back with his shoulder, and they all fell toward the shimmering brick wall. And through it.

  7

  Even felt a tickle all over her skin, beneath her fur, and then the tickle sharpened as if she were being poked by a thousand tiny thorns. She couldn’t hear anything, smell anything, taste anything . . . For one terrible minute, she thought, This is it: I’m dead.

  She tumbled onto the grass head over tail and landed on her back looking up at an alien sky.

  “Whoa,” she said.

  It was still blue, but it wasn’t the same kind of blue she was used to—it was closer to a sea blue, with streaks of green and black within the clouds. The air tasted different too, like cinnamon and burned sugar.

  I remember this taste, she thought. How could she have forgotten it? Breathing in, she remembered moments: running to her dad and having him magically fly her around the room like a kite, and building a sandcastle on a windy day—the sand kept scattering until Mom transformed her castle into crystal. The sandy wind had smelled like this. She wished she could remember more.

  She rolled onto her paws and stood, shaking out her fur. “Odd?” Even called.

  “Here!” Odd sat up a few feet away. Her usually stick-straight hair was frizzed in all directions, as if full of static electricity. She patted it down, but it sprang back up. “Sorry I dropped you. That was so weird. I couldn’t feel anything.”

  “Me either.” She felt normal now, though, or at least as normal as she could, given that she was a skunk. She tested her legs and swished her tail. “Jeremy? Are you okay?”

  The unicorn was frolicking across the meadow, kicking up his hooves and tossing his mane. “Yay, yay, yay! Not doomed! Not dead!”

  Even grinned. They’d done it! They’d crossed the border into Firoth, the world where magic was born. And where I was born! If it were an even day, she’d be able to feel it vibrating beneath her skin. As it was, it was enough to know that the magic was here and, with the gateway open, would flow back into the mundane world again too. Tomorrow she’d be able to change herself back to human. If Dad hasn’t fixed me already, she thought. After all, she didn’t have to hide her failure to transform anymore, since it wasn’t her fault.

  “So it’s working?” Odd asked. “Everything’s okay again? And Mom can come home?”

  “Everything back to normal.” And soon I will be too! Even beamed at her sister and waved her fluffy tail happily.

  “Good. Really, really good. We should get back, before anything happens.” Odd eyed the meadow nervously, as if it weren’t the most beautiful sight that they had ever seen.

  “One minute,” Even begged. “Let me drink it in.” The grass was a carpet of flowers: orchids, roses, and many-petaled clumps that she didn’t remember ever seeing before and couldn’t name. Higher than she was tall, the blades of grass tickled her belly. She rose onto her hind legs to see better. As Even watched, the petals of the nearest flowers began to spin faster and faster until the blossoms shot into the air and were carried off by the wind.

  “Gah, shoo! Get off me!” Jeremy pranced in a circle, shaking off several flying flowers.

  She heard giggling from within the flowers. Flower fairies, she thought. Amazing! She reached toward one and it fluttered around her paw, its petals moving as fast as a hummingbird’s wings.

  Then she felt a sharp prick of pain.

  “Ow!” She yanked her paw back and cradled it against her furry chest. It felt like she’d gotten a flu shot right in the soft pad of her paw. A drop of blood welled up.

  “Flower fairies sting,” Jeremy warned her.

  That would have been nice to know sooner. She glared at him, then at the flower fairies. She didn’t have any memories of wasplike fairies. She licked away the drop of blood.

  Odd asked Jeremy, “Are you going to get in trouble, or did we get you home soon enough? I don’t think anyone saw us. Except the stinging flowers, which by the way are not charming.” She shooed away a few with her foot.

  Even agreed with her about that. She waved her skunk tail threateningly at a red-petaled fairy. It bared its tiny, needle-sharp teeth at her and then buzzed away.

  “You saved me!” Jeremy neighed happily. “There’s no way my parents will ever guess I was in your world. Unless I tell them. Which I don’t plan to. Ever. Hey, if I make it back to your side of the border someday, how about a match of Farmcats? I think my new deck has a Mouse card.”

  “You’re on,” Odd said. She hugged him around his neck. “Really great to meet you, Jeremy. I’m glad we were able to help you get home. Ready for us to go home too, Even?”

  Even knew she should say yes. Instead of speaking, she stared in every direction with eyes wide, trying to see every blade of grass and fix every detail in her memory to dissect later. She’d been so young when they’d moved that it all felt new and fresh and wondrous.

  It was so, so temptin
g to stay longer. A few more minutes. An hour.

  Reluctantly, she turned away from the meadow and faced the border. Here the gateway was an arch that floated in a wall of mist. Within the arch, a thousand liquid hues merged and shimmered. Mesmerized, she stared at the swirling colors.

  “Even? We have to tell Dad the border is open. We said we would.”

  She’s right. For her first quest to be a success, she had to complete it.

  “One last second.” Even inhaled deeply, wishing she could keep a bit of the burned-sugar air in her lungs, hoping she never again forgot the way it tasted, smelled, and felt.

  “Seriously? You like it here? Of course you do,” Odd said. “I’m happy for Jeremy’s sake that the gateway worked, but this place makes my skin crawl. I can’t tell what’s a magic creature and what’s just a plant or a cloud.”

  “It’s every bit as incredible as I thought I remembered,” Even said. She felt as if a hundred thoughts and emotions were tumbling inside her, her heart lurching like an unbalanced washing machine.

  Side by side, the sisters looked at the shimmering gateway.

  I’ll come back, Even promised herself. This wouldn’t be her last glimpse of Firoth. Someday, I’ll see it all. Someday, I’ll be one of the wizards who defends it from all threats. It just wasn’t her time yet.

  “Together?” Odd suggested.

  “Yes, togeth—” Even began.

  And the gateway vanished.

  * * *

  Both of them stared at the mist for several seconds before speaking.

  “I didn’t do it,” Even said.

  “You couldn’t have done it,” Odd said flatly. “It’s an odd day.”

  They stared at the border some more.

  Jeremy joined them, also staring.

  “It’ll come back,” Odd said. “And then we’ll be able to go home. We just need to wait.” She said it as if it were a wish or a spell. But Even heard the note of panic in her voice. She felt the same worry, like a hand squeezing her stomach and lungs.