That's a Good Question

21: how to be one with nature?

No, I'm still not used to it—having this many people in my apartment at once. Since I moved out of my subway tunnel house, I've been on my own, my only visitor being Rocco, who has that annoying habit of just showing up without warning. Now, all of a sudden, my apartment's some kind of pow-wow place. Rocco's reclined on the couch, Midge is perched on a stool, and Safiya's glaring at me angrily from the kitchen island. I interrupted her midday meal, apparently, but what does she expect when she doesn't close her damn door?

And Jamie's asleep somewhere. Or dead. Probably asleep.

As I'm striding over with a mug of green tea, no less, to sit beside Rocco, Safiya calls out, "Alright, demonboy. I'd prefer to get this over with. Really. The suspense is just killing me."

"Yes, it certainly is. I can see it on your face," I mutter, sarcastically enough to hopefully but probably not match her sarcasm. I settle myself down in the couch cushions, making myself comfortable. "As you've probably noticed if you ever look outside, we've got a bit of a situation."

"I don't like the outside," grumbles Safiya.

Like I should have expected any different from her.

Before I can elaborate, Midge does for me. "Humans are protesting," she says with a heavy sigh, raking her hair back from her face. Her lips twitch into a frown. "It's because of the attacks...I guess they're just scared of us now."

Safiya pauses, then lets out a cackle that sounds a bit too close to evil for my comfort. When she smiles, she showcases two bright white fangs, glimmering keen. "Why, they should be. What else is new?"

"Safi," I grumble. "It's disrupting the peace. Peace is good. We want peace."

Her smile dissipates. She keeps glaring at me. "Fine," she snaps. "What's the big idea, then? I'm sure you geniuses have come up with something."

Midge and I make eye contact. My look says, Are we sure we want to go through with this? Hers says, Stop stalling.

I'm not stalling.

Really, I'm not.

I just really, really don't get along with pixies.

Midge clearly isn't going to help me out here, and I don't know why I expected her to. I wipe sweat off my palms, looking at Rocco and Safiya in turn. Rocco's been oddly silent through all this, now that I think about it. It's kind of unnerving, coming from a guy like him. When we were kids, he never shut up. Always rattling on about Hot Wheels or my teeth or the latest episode of Go, Diego, Go!

I was more of a Dora guy. Don't ask me why.

"It's not much," I begin, "but it's an idea. Just like witches, pixies are good with all that energy stuff. Midge and I are figuring...maybe we can gather some info from them."

"Yeah," Midge agrees. "They ought to be as concerned as we are."

I nod, and then Midge and I both sit there, waiting for a reaction. Yes, I'm expecting a reaction. Yet, Safiya and Rocco don't say anything. Safiya just continues glaring at me and Rocco looks a little like he wants to throw up for some reason. He'd better not throw up. I paid good money for this couch we're sitting on, and it's a decent couch, too. By decent I mean it doesn't swallow people.

Then Safiya murmurs, "That's it?"

I raise an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean that's it?"

"I mean that you're right. It's not much at all. We talk to the pixies, woohoo. Then what? We all go out for root beer floats and a movie?" taunts Safiya, tossing her raven-colored hair over one shoulder. "That's not solving anything, cross-breed."