LITMIR.BIZ

      In the pudding shop, they sat at a table in the back, encased in shadows. Maiko scooped tiny bites from her bowl of rice pudding while Michael stirred in a page of shredded comics into his.

      “Can you tell me something? What’s all this business with the north? What are they trying to do to the city?”

      “Don’t you read the papers?”

      “I try to avoid politics.”

      “The north,” Maiko began, but then glanced in each direction. She lowered her voice. “They’re very interested in annexing the city.”

      “But why?”

      “Many reasons. This peninsula has a natural harbor, and if it was controlled by the north, they would be able to tax all the goods that enter. And then there’s the fish market. There’s a lot opportunity to make money from the city. And of course on the south end of the peninsula are the beaches. Right now, fishermen use it each fall. People from surrounding fishing villages show up for a week and try to marry off their daughters. But if the north had the beach, it could become a resort for northerners, and you know what kind of money that would generate. There are lots of rich northerners.”

      “Have you been to the north?”

      “Don’t tell anyone this,” she said, “but I’m from there. My parents still live there with my sister. They keep asking me to move home, but there’s nothing there. There are no pudding shops. Only ice cream shops, and they all serve the same boring flavors. That’s the saddest thing—if the city is taken over by the north, sure there will be good things that come of it, but all the stuff that makes the city unique will disappear. Things are already disappearing. Like fur models.”

      “Do mushrooms grow in the north?”

      “Don’t make fun of me.”

      Maiko grew serious. “I’ll tell you this: the north is infiltrating the city, buying our officials. They are also starting to hassle people who stand out. It’s not safe to be different.”

      “I see,” he said, and nearly choked on his last, large bite.

      8

      TWO WEEKS WENT BY, SLOWLY ERODING HIS HOPE. THERE WERE several phone calls searching for a bookkeeper, but they all inquired if he already had a work permit.

      “Ask them to sponsor you,” Maiko whispered into his uncovered ear.

      Each caller refused. Despite the recent optimism that had risen inside him, it became apparent that living in the city wasn’t easy. Still, he lived for going out, and quickly grew used to the straw hat. To be around people, tall buildings, and smell the salty air was thrilling. On several occasions, he spotted the radio tower near the lighthouse, and he continued to listen to the one-eyed man’s rants whenever Maiko wasn’t there to shut off the radio.

      On the streets, he often imitated people walking in front of him. What he wanted was to blend in so well that he was almost invisible. He practiced different gaits, swings of his arms, hunching his shoulders or pulling them back. Listening to their voices, he even tried on their vocal patterns, including the ones with megaphones demanding that the city secede on its own. On an empty street, he shouted their demands with their same intensity, where only the mockingbirds listened and nodded with approval when he sounded just like the original.

      He blended into the frequent demonstrations and protests that flared up everywhere. Before a tall corporate tower, a teenager began throwing anchovies at its windows. Then from the crowd came bodies of squid and octopus, fresh from the fish market that stuck to the glass and slid down, leaving streaks of slime. Michael dodged the falling sea creatures, afraid their wetness would ruin his newly painted skin. Police arrived; the crowded erupted, and Michael hurried away unscathed and proud of himself.

      They’d lost track of the rejections when a call came from a fish cannery in the harbor. It happened one morning while Maiko sat at the kitchen table altering a shirt she had found in the street and then had washed to give to Michael.

      “M&M Bookkeeping,” Maiko said when she answered the phone. “One moment.” She covered the mouthpiece. “Another customer!” she whispered to Michael, who was leafing through the classified ads of the City Mirror.

      “A client,” he corrected her.

      He spoke in single word sentences. Maiko waited. “Ask if you need a work permit,” she said. But he didn’t. When he hung up the phone, he sat at the table and said nothing.

      “Well?” she finally asked, holding his hand in hers.

      “I might have a job,” he said to Maiko. “No work permit required.”

      She leaped up and hugged him. He stumbled back from the impact, reeling from the closeness of her body to his. Despite her vanilla perfume, in the curve of her neck he smelled the scent of mushrooms.

      “What did they say?”

      “They want me to come by tomorrow morning. What will they say about my body?” He pawed at the dent on the side of his face. At a job interview he would be under scrutiny, and each imperfection would be a debit against him.

      Maiko observed his face, turning her head to take him in from all angles. He lowered his hand and allowed her to stare at the dent. Her look was never malicious—it always had genuine concern, and he was becoming comfortable around it.

      Her cheeks brightened as she smiled.

      “I know! I’ll make you a mask. To even out your face.”