Welcome to Bordertown by Ellen Kushner, Holly Black (editors) Read Free Book Online Page B

was.
    The crux of all his problems.
    He could go home, be free of this whole mess … and then land in another one: home again, free all right, free to be Anush Gupta, Total Failure. Failed scholar, failed grad student, the world’s biggest disappointment to his family, the biggest disgrace that the Indian community of Sunnyvale, California, had ever known. Not to mention the fact that every girl his age would be thirteen years older than him.
    He pulled on his T-shirt. “I’m going out.”
    “By day? Like this?”
    “Why not?” he said bitterly. “It’s not like anyone will recognize me.”
    *   *   *
     
    Trish watched Cam walk off down the street. How did you get to look like that? It wasn’t the willowy, angular blondness—that, you had to be born with. It was the bounce in the mismatched shoes, the striped socks, and the Faerie charms dangling from her belt. That was pure Bordertown. Trish could stay here till she was thirty, and she’d never look like that. Would she? She was a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of girl, a simple, serious person. Even at home, shehadn’t been much for dressing up; that was for nonserious girls—and besides, if she could, she would dress in velvets and lace and skirts that swept the floor, nothing you’d ever find in Milltown.
    But this was Bordertown. There were vintage shops on Carmine Street. Not that she had anything to buy with, but maybe she’d go there early tonight and just look around to see what was there.…
    “Heads up! Monster on the loose!”
    The shout rang up the street. Everyone was turning, staring at the thing that ran, scuttling, along the curb, waving its hairy arms and howling. It wasn’t a monkey, but it wasn’t human. Its face was hidden in a tangle of matted hair. Its hair was white—or whitish gray, anyway—and its arms and legs were skinny, the arms and fingers long—
    “Gurgi!” Trish shouted, startled. The creature looked (and moved) just like Gurgi from
The Chronicles of Prydain
! She took off after him. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one. Whether they were scared or just mean, other kids were after the creature, throwing garbage and even rocks. She saw one hit the creature, heard him give a cry of pain.
    “Cut it out!” Trish cried. She stopped, turning, to stand between the creature and the crowd.
    “Fuckin’ noob!” a guy cursed her. “Get outta the way!”
    “It’s a monster from the Nevernever, bitch! Get it out of Soho before it goes toxic and destroys us all!”
    “You goddamned illiterate wastrel,” Trish yelled, so mad she didn’t care that she wasn’t sure how to pronounce it (was it
waste-rel
or
wahss-trel
?). “You ignorant peasant jackass! It’s Gurgi from the Prydain books! Now back off, you brainless wonder, before I rip you a new one!”
    Even Gurgi had frozen in the tirade of her wrath. He stoodbehind her, shaking and whimpering—it almost sounded like giggling laughter.
    And the other kids backed off and away, leaving Trish in command of her prize.
    The creature peered up at her through matted hair.
    “Crunchings and munchings?” it asked hopefully.
    Trish grinned. She’d said it was Gurgi, but she hadn’t fully believed it. Nothing in Bordertown was like the books she loved. Until now. But that clinched it; that was exactly how Gurgi talked. She’d fallen into the right story at last.
    “Are you hurt?” she asked.
    He had his arms crossed protectively over his chest.
    His arms were skinny but strong, just like Lloyd Alexander described him.
    “Come on, let me see,” Trish coaxed.
    His arms fell to his sides.
    What is Gurgi doing wearing a Harvard T-shirt?
Trish thought. “This is so weird,” she said. “You’re the second … um … guy I’ve seen this week in one of those.”
    The shirt hung on his scrawny frame like a nightshirt on a little kid. “Noble lord was kind to Gurgi,” the creature said, his head bobbing up and down.
    “
Anush
gave you that? Where— How was