Why Should I Be a Magical Girl? I'm Overworked As It Is! — Chapter 6: The Persistent Shuli

Carmen lazily brushed the taste of cardboard out of her mouth with mint flavored toothpaste. She changed into an old T-shirt and sleep shorts, not bothering to check her appearance in the mirror, and crawled into bed. She was ready to sleep after being emotionally ambushed by those empty leftover containers and a talking cat.

Carmen buried her face in the pillow, secretly still hoping it was all fake and she was losing her mind. If it was real, she was pretty sure the cat would be back like an annoying spam popup. Carmen was tired, but not tired enough to miss the “this isn't optional” phrase Shuli had said.

Her weather app said there was a big storm tonight. Right on cue, rain started pattering against her window, lulling her into the hazy, sinking place that happened right before real sleep took over.

Carmen was trying to maneuver herself back into her yacht dream by replaying where she left off over and over, focusing on the piña colada—when a meow cut through.

She ignored it. The meowing didn’t stop. It got more insistent.

“Arghhh,” Carmen muttered into her mattress. “This damn cat.”

She tossed in her bed.

“Meeeoooow.”

Irritated, she hauled herself up and stumbled to the window, already composing the sentence she was about to deliver. She slammed it open.

“I told you to go find someone el—”

The word died in her throat. A torrent of wind slapped her in the face. Thunder cracked. The rain started falling down harder, in sheets. It turned the streetlights into blurry smears. It was impossible to see anything. And there, hunched miserably on the metal grating, soaked entirely through, monocle fogged over, was Shuli.

She looked pitiful. Genuinely, unbearably pitiful.

“Help…”

Carmen sighed, “Fuck my life.”

She motioned for Shuli to come in, already regretting it. Shuli sped into Carmen’s apartment and shook the rainwater everywhere the second her paws hit the floor.

“You can stay. But only until the rain stops.” She snatched a random towel laying around and dropped it over Shuli’s head. “Shut up. Don’t say anything. I don’t want to hear it. And don’t touch my furniture.”

Muffled beneath the towel, Shuli still somehow managed to sound smug.

“Thank you!”

Carmen headed to bed cursing herself for caving, ignoring the sound of Shuli drying herself and making biscuits on the towel.

The next morning, Carmen wasn’t woken by her alarm. She was woken by feeling two stabbing sensations, then another two, followed by something heavy sitting on her chest and a fuzzy paw nudging her face.

“Good morning!” Shuli said, entirely too chipper for whatever time it was. “Ready to save the world?”

Carmen groaned, “Please tell me this isn’t happening right now.” She pushed Shuli off of her by rolling over.

“Your alarm is going to go off. I checked the time on the home screen. I’m not a heathen. I know beauty sleep is important! By my calculations, it’s going to go off in… 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1.”

Sure enough, the phone alarm started ringing.

Carmen dragged herself upright, pointing at Shuli. “Why are you still here?!”

Shuli said, “You’re going to be late if you don’t hurry. I already hit snooze for you twice.”

Carmen grabbed her phone and looked at the time.

“What did you do?! I knew I was going to regret letting you in!”

“But sleep is important! I wanted you to look less like a dead fish.”

Carmen dashed to the bathroom, threw her clothes off and hastily changed into her fast food uniform. She brushed her teeth as fast as possible, leaving the toothbrush in her mouth as she put up her hair and put on the hat. She saw the pink wand from the street floating in the mirror’s reflection, drifting closer like it was trying to get her attention.

Her toothbrush fell into the sink with a clatter. “What the fuck is that? It floats!?” She whipped her head around and there it was.

“Isn’t it magnificent?” Shuli asked, trailing behind it. “Don’t you want to hold it?”

“How is that thing here?!”

“Oh, I brought it when I first came in. It was in your pile of laundry hiding because you said it was cheap looking. But it looks like it’s ready to try again and impress you!”

“I’m not touching that thing.”

Carmen spat into the sink. “And it’s not impressive. It’s a stick. A glowing stick. You can get a ten-pack of glow-in-the-dark sticks at the store.”

The wand's glow dimmed, slightly, like it had actually heard that and taken it personally.

“Seriously? It has feelings?!”

“Why, yes. How do you think it chose you? It’s not just an object silly. You should be nicer. It wants to be your friend!”

Carmen made a face.

“I’m not dealing with this!”

Her keys were already in hand as she ran for the door.

Somehow, Carmen made it on time. Her shift started normally enough. She was midway through refilling the napkin dispenser when Shuli appeared directly on the counter in front of her, without warning.

Carmen jumped, knocking the whole stack of napkins to the floor.

“Holy—”She caught herself, glancing around. “Where did you come from?!”

“I walked in through the front door with a customer?”

The noise seized Maya’s attention from the register. She strolled over, wiping her hands on her apron.

“Everything okay Carmen? Please tell me you didn’t see another of those dreaded…” Maya shivered, “water bugs?”

It was the term management insisted on. Nobody was supposed to say roach out loud. ‘Water bug’ sounded marginally less likely to end up in a health inspection complaint. But everyone who worked here knew they were roaches.

Shuli meanwhile, licked herself and cleaned her face nonchalantly, saying, “Don’t worry she can’t see me.” 

Shuli must have been telling the truth because Maya didn’t seem to notice Shuli. Carmen went with it. She laughed nervously and bent to gather the napkins off the floor. “Oh, yeah. Uhm, it came out of nowhere. Scared the life out of me.” She tossed the sullied napkins into the trash.

“They really need to do something about those,” Maya said shaking her head, hands on her hips, and went back to the register. Her curiosity was satisfied.

Carmen made sure no one else was watching and dropped her voice.

“Let me guess. I’m the only one who can see you and apparently, based on Maya’s lack of reaction, also the only one who can hear you.”

Shuli grinned. “Good deduction! It’s a perk of being a part of the council. Convenient, right? I choose when to be seen! But there’s more to it than that. You’re part of a legacy, Carmen.”

Carmen picked up a cleaning rag and spray bottle with cleaning solution.

She murmured angrily while smiling because a customer had walked in and they could see Carmen, “Can you get off the counter, I need to clean it because of you.”

“Excuse me? I’m cleaner than the humans who eat here!” Shuli grunted, hopping onto the floor. Carmen sprayed the counter and wiped it dry.

“Hello! Welcome to Max’s Burgers. How can I help you today?” Maya could be heard as she greeted the customer and took their order.

“There’s been a surge in disturbances,” Shuli continued. “More than we’ve seen in a long time. That's why this region’s council decided to start waking more artifacts.”

“You want me to become a hero because a group of  animals think the world's going haywire?”

“It’s not about being a hero.” Shuli’s voice softened. “We have been doing this work long before your kind ever noticed there was work to do. But we don't have hands, your world-wide reach, or your technology. So we look for humans with good hearts—those who'd do right even if no one ever found out.”

Carmen was quiet as she stared at Shuli.

Ding.

“I’ve got enough on my plate without adding ‘magical disturbances’ to the list. I told you to find someone else.”

“HELLO?”

Carmen turned away from Shuli and tapped the speaker button on her headset. “Hi there! Welcome to Max’s burgers. What can I get for you today?”

“But the wand chose you.” Shuli whispered, watching Carmen’s back.

******

Outside the restaurant’s window, a single dandelion seed purposefully drifted forward. It glowed dark purple, floating over rooftops and empty streets, before finally settling in a park that was in the middle of a popular shopping center, directly across from Max’s Burgers.

It pulsed ominously.