Illustrations by Victoria Assanelli
Guest art by Bettina M. George
Episode 3: Brussel Sprouts
With Saturday being a particularly hot day, Hana decided to call up her friends to see if they would like to go ice-skating with her at an indoor rink. When she called James she told him about the news footage she had seen the night before. James told her that he had seen it as well and had thought about calling her at Henri’s place, but then the effort of dialling had overwhelmed him. Hana called him lazy and then asked if he wanted to go ice-skating, to which he readily agreed. Apparently his laziness came in sporadic waves.
She then called Henri and he was up for it as well, having no homework or any other projects to prevent him from going. While they talked on the phone, Henri brought up a dream he had experienced the previous night, where he was a baseball ghost on a team of tangible players. He said that he had become frustrated when the balls kept flying through his invisible ghost bat, but then things turned fun when he discovered he could possess the baseball and make it go wherever he wanted. Hana suggested that he incorporate this strategy into his everyday playing.
After talking to James and Henri, Hana called her friend Pitaya to see if she would be interested in skating as well. Hana had met Pitaya in gym class the previous year, where they soon became good friends. Their friendship only grew stronger after a bizarre karaoke incident in which Pitaya’s singing accidentally gave Hana, James and Henri the facial characteristics of animals. That was when Hana found out she was not alone in having a special power, though she never let Pitaya in on her own secret.
Pitaya sounded enthusiastic on the phone but had to check with her parents to make sure she was actually free. After about five minutes in which Hana strained to hear the distant sound of Pitaya asking her family, Pitaya came back on the line and happily announced she could go.
Pitaya’s father drove her to Hana’s house so that she and Hana could wait there together for James and Henri, as James and Henri were biking to Hana’s place from their homes. The rink was within walking distance of Hana’s house, so everyone except for Pitaya figured they would be hanging out there after they went skating. Pitaya imagined she would be picked up right afterwards.
When Hana opened the door for Pitaya she noticed something different about her, though she could not put her finger on it. It could not have been the white shirt or dark blue jeans she wore, because Pitaya had worn those before. She had not grown suddenly taller, and she still did not have any piercings in her ears. Her hair had not changed, either, being as long and black as it always was, and her skin was still the same colour as that of the fruit she was named after.
‘Um,’ Pitaya said nervously, watching on as Hana silently inspected her.
‘I got it!’ Hana suddenly exclaimed triumphantly. ‘You . . . you’re wearing glasses!’
‘No I’m not,’ Pitaya said as she took off her glasses. ‘See?’
Hana resisted the urge to make a joke about seeing. ‘When did you get those?’ she asked instead.
‘This morning,’ Pitaya told her. ‘I’m still getting used to them.’
Hana was visibly surprised. ‘But you’re so good at basketball! How could you make all those great throws if you can’t even see?’
‘It’s not like I’m completely blind. But, um, I was sorta playing on instinct before.’
‘That’s crazy! That means you’re even better than I thought you were.’
The disembodied voices of Hana’s entire family began complaining about all of the hot air being let into the house, so Hana let Pitaya in instead and quickly shut the door.
‘Don’t mind my family,’ Hana said. ‘They become immovable piles of sweat on hot days like this.’
Pitaya nodded, set her skates down and then took off her shoes. Hana led her to the kitchen and offered her a frozen snack. Together they sat eating yellow popsicles while waiting for James and Henri to arrive.
‘You know, I don’t think your glasses look that bad, if that’s what you’re worried about.’
‘I don’t know. I don’t want to look nerdy. I mean, Henri’s not nerdy at all.’
Hana smiled. She knew that Henri and Pitaya liked each other but neither of them had enough confidence about the matter to admit it. Whenever Henri was around Pitaya, he blushed so much that his skin became the same pink hue as hers.
‘You don’t look nerdy,’ Hana told her. ‘I doubt anyone is going to see you differently. The only person who’s seeing things differently is you.’
‘Yeah?’ Pitaya asked as she put her glasses back on.
‘Yeah. You’re thinking about how you look with them, yet all I can think about is how much more clearly you can see my dandruff.’
‘Um, wow, yeah,’ Pitaya said. ‘I can definitely see it a lot more clearly now.’
Hana gave her a defeated smile. At least she was able to get her to wear her glasses again.
After they threw out their popsicle sticks there was a knock at the door, and Hana opened it to an empty porch. She hesitated to look down, in case there was a distressed lobster waiting for her help, but there was nothing there either. Confused, she was about to close the door again when she spotted a familiar head poking out from behind a bush across the street, and then the rest of Henri followed after it. He waved nervously as he crossed the street towards her.
‘I forgot something behind that bush,’ he lied. Hana knew that he really meant ‘I saw Pitaya through the window and decided to run away’, but she did not want to make the accusation while Pitaya was standing right behind her.
‘Did you park your bike at the side?’ Hana asked.
Henri was about to answer when he saw a flash of Pitaya’s pink face behind her. He tilted his body to the right so that he could see the rest of her, but Hana followed his movement, blocking the cherished view.
‘Hi, Henri,’ he heard Pitaya’s voice say.
‘Hello,’ he replied, regaining his composure.
‘So, did you park your bike at the side?’ Hana asked again.
‘Yes, right by the side door,’ Henri answered.
Hana’s parents had recently made it a rule that her friends could only park their bicycles at the side of the house. This rule took effect immediately after her parents came home one day to find James’ bicycle parked – the term ‘parked’ used loosely – on top of their front yard’s rose garden.
From within the house came further shouts for Hana to close the door, so she let Henri in and did so.
‘Hello, Pitaya,’ he said again, now that he was directly facing her. ‘Those are the most perfect glasses I have ever seen in my entire life.’
‘Um, thanks,’ Pitaya said, glowing with the compliment. ‘I just got them today.’
Hana smiled at how sweet she found this exchange. She wished James was already there so that she could point it out to him.
‘Don’t bother taking off your shoes, Henri,’ Hana told him. ‘James should be here any second.’
Pitaya put her shoes back on upon hearing this. Hana followed suit, and once her shoes were laced there was another knock at the door. She opened it to James, who was standing with his bat resting against his shoulder, a bubblegum bubble sticking out of his mouth. He popped it and said hello to everybody.
‘Did you park your bike at the side?’ Hana asked him.
He blew another bubble and then quickly popped it as well. ‘Yeah,’ he said.
‘Okay. Let’s go pretend it’s winter,’ Hana said, leading Pitaya and Henri out of the house.
‘You’re not bringing any skates?’ Pitaya asked, confused.
‘We just rent them from the rink,’ Hana explained. ‘It’s cheaper than buying a new pair every year.’
As they strolled away from the house, Hana looked back to make sure the bicycles had in fact been properly parked. That was when she noticed James’ bicycle, which was somehow parked directly on top of Henri’s.
‘James!’ she exclaimed, stopping and pointing at the impossibly well-balanced stack. James, Henri and Pitaya all stopped and turned to see what the exclamation was about. Only James appeared unconcerned.
‘What?’ he asked dryly. ‘I thought that was what you wanted.’
‘Wow, how did you do that?’ Pitaya asked, her eyes wide as she held her hand to her mouth in surprise.
‘I’d be upset if that wasn’t so impressive,’ Henri said.
‘We can’t just leave them like that,’ Hana said. ‘What if James’ bike falls and lands on somebody? What if it falls and scratches the car?’
‘Trust me, I’m a professional when it comes to stacking things,’ boasted James.
Hana sighed. ‘All right, but if something bad happens it’s your own fault. My parents are running out of places to make you park your bike.’
James shrugged and they continued on their way through the scorching heat. The air was like a thick, hot wall that they were constantly walking into. At least it quickened their pace, and they arrived at the indoor rink within minutes, all of them completely drenched in sweat with the exception of Pitaya. She explained that she pretty much thrived on hot weather, and from how strong her tan was they could not help but believe her.
Once inside, Hana, James and Henri paid three dollars each to rent skates. They would have paid the three dollars just for the chill that greeted them when they entered the building. Each was also given a key to a locker to put their shoes, and they hurriedly did so; Pitaya put her shoes in with Hana’s, much to Henri’s disappointment. They then put on their skates and walked clumsily to the rink, where Pitaya was already skating, gaining speed and performing tricks such as spinning like a top. They had never seen anyone skate like that before in person.
‘Should we just turn back?’ James asked. ‘I mean, is there any point in skating anymore?’
‘Of course there is,’ Hana said. ‘We don’t have to skate as awesomely as Pitaya to have fun. Besides, what we really came here for is the delicious coldness. Right, Henri?’
Henri was too busy paying attention to Pitaya to hear most of what Hana said. ‘Yes, skating is delicious,’ he said.
Hana laughed. She prodded James in the ribs to see if he got what was so funny. He did not, and looked at her with a hurt expression while he rubbed his side.
Hana opened the gate and stepped carefully onto the ice while holding the railing for support. She felt like she could slip away at any moment. Not being able to skate like Pitaya was fine, but not being able to skate at all would be embarrassing.
That was when Pitaya skated by and came to a sudden halt, shaving off enough ice to cover the legs of James and Henri. She turned to Hana, grabbed her arm and gradually led her away from the railing. Then Pitaya let go, leaving Hana to skate awkwardly on her own.
‘Aargh!’ Hana cried. ‘I’m about one hundred percent sure that I could skate during winter!’
‘But then again, you’ve never been that good at math,’ James said as he skated past her.
Hana’s temper came to such a boil that she nearly melted the ice beneath her. But Pitaya soon came around again and assisted her. With Pitaya leading the way, Hana managed to make long, consistent strides, and after a bit of practice she was able to coast on her own. She circled around James and stuck her tongue out at him.
Henri skated nearly as well as Pitaya, though he was not quite flamboyant enough to pull off the same types of tricks she did. Instead he merely skated backwards and forwards, switching between the two effortlessly, usually with his hands held behind his back. He seemed to be in perfect control of himself.
James had managed to sneak in his baseball bat and sometimes used it to prevent himself from slamming into a wall. His favourite thing to do was to skate as fast as possible and see how long he could glide for, which usually resulted in people dashing out of his path.
By the time they had exhausted themselves, two more children entered the rink, and they did not look particularly friendly. One was short with what looked to be light green skin and curly, dark green hair, his eyes a shade of green somewhere between the two. The other was—
‘Kohlrabi!’ Hana exclaimed under her breath. She had not expected to see him again, especially not this soon.
‘Who’s that?’ Pitaya asked, stopping beside her. She had noticed Hana staring at Kohlrabi with bitter resentment.
‘The tall one is my supposed rival,’ Hana whispered to her. ‘I don’t know who the other one is.’
‘I see,’ Pitaya said.
Kohlrabi and the other one stepped onto the ice without any skates. They were wearing their school uniforms despite it being Saturday, and as they walked on the ice they looked all around them, as if there were more interesting things than Hana. But she could tell that they were heading directly towards her.
Eventually Kohlrabi and his accomplice stopped in front of Hana and Pitaya. Kohlrabi stood with his hands in his pockets while the boy who was with him scratched his green face as he looked Hana up and down. Then he smirked.
‘This is her?’ the green boy asked Kohlrabi with a painfully raspy voice.
‘Yes, this is Hana,’ Kohlrabi answered, smiling. They behaved as if she were unable to see them or interact with them – basically treating her like an animal in a zoo – which she found incredibly rude. She crossed her arms and glared at them.
‘What do you want?’ she asked.
‘Hm? Oh, I forgot you know how to talk,’ Kohlrabi said, grinning evilly.
‘I’ll have you know that my friends are here,’ Hana threatened. ‘I’d just go back if I were you.’
Kohlrabi feigned surprise. ‘Ah? That’s a terrific coincidence. As you can see, my friend is here as well.’
He then stepped to the side so that his friend could introduce himself. ‘Brussel,’ the green boy said, bowing ironically to the girls. ‘A real pleasure.’
‘Did you know that your friend is a real jerk, Brussel?’ Hana asked. Pitaya tried to take Hana’s arm so that she could lead her away and calm her down, but Hana was immovable.
James and Henri finally took notice of the confrontation taking place and skated over to them.
‘Well well well well well,’ James said, tapping his palm with his bat. ‘Well well well well well.’
‘Well?’ Kohlrabi asked.
‘Well,’ James answered, setting the tip of his bat against the ice.
‘I’m glad you’re all here,’ Kohlrabi said to the group. ‘I have chosen you as the representatives of your school – even you, the nerdy girl with the glasses.’
‘Hey!’ Pitaya cried out.
Kohlrabi lifted his hand to shush her but James lowered it with his bat.
‘I’m not one for fighting,’ Henri said as Kohlrabi pushed away James’ bat. ‘But I will gladly make you run away again.’
‘And I’m not one for running,’ Kohlrabi told him, obviously bitter about their last encounter. ‘Now, as I was saying: I’ve decided that all of you will be representing your school in our rivalry. Brussel and I, as you can see, are here to represent our school. But please take note that there are actually a lot more of us than what you see here. We’re a very formidable school, and we don’t take kindly to the disrespect that you guys seem to be so fond of.’
‘Disrespect?’ Hana asked, aghast. ‘You’re the one who keeps harassing me!’
Kohlrabi took his other hand out of his pocket and opened it in front of them. Looking down at the two broken pieces of recorder that rested in his palm, Hana suddenly felt a lot more guilty.
‘Okay, I’m sorry about that; I really am,’ Hana said sincerely. ‘But would you have really used it to play normally?’
‘Of course not,’ Kohlrabi readily admitted. ‘But that doesn’t mean you could go and destroy it.’
‘I’m thinking that it does,’ James said.
During the course of all of this, Pitaya went from being surprised to upset to confused. She rubbed her temples and hoped it would all end soon.
‘Want me to break her recorder?’ Brussel asked in his grotesque voice. He sounded like he had been suffering from a sore throat for his entire life.
‘She’s bad enough at it that she’ll probably end up breaking it herself,’ Kohlrabi said snidely.
‘Grr! That does it!’ Hana shoved her fingers into her hair and was about to drag out a dandruff weapon before James stopped her. He shook his head and then motioned towards Pitaya. Hana sighed and then dropped her hands.
Kohlrabi lifted an eyebrow. ‘What was all that about?’ he asked. ‘Were you going to throw your dandruff at me?’
‘It’s none of your business,’ James said, holding up his bat.
Kohlrabi shrugged. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘I’ve had enough of all of you for today, anyway. Brussel, please show them your special trick.’
Brussel nodded and brought his hand to his hair, which, close-up, reminded everyone of broccoli. Then he grabbed a piece, snapped it off and showed it around. Everyone looked at the solid piece of hair with horror while Kohlrabi watched on in amusement.
‘That’s not the half of it,’ Kohlrabi said. ‘Do you mind showing them your hand, Brussel?’
‘Not at all,’ Brussel said, holding up his hand for their inspection. Like every other part of him, his hand was green with a shiny texture.
Brussel looked to Kohlrabi for a cue. Kohlrabi nodded at him, and then Brussel smiled at the others.
‘Some people find this disgusting,’ he said, and then he began snapping off each of the fingers on his hand. They broke apart like fresh vegetables.
Hana, James, Henri and Pitaya all opened their mouths wide in horror.
‘Before you get too freaked out, you should know that any part of him that breaks off will grow back in less than a day,’ Kohlrabi said. ‘This means Brussel is not afraid of anything.’
‘Okay, you win the rivalry or whatever,’ Hana said, sick to her stomach. ‘Just get out of here and don’t show that to us again.’
‘Oh, but I’m afraid that Brussel’s little trick is just a taste of what you can expect,’ Kohlrabi told her. ‘But I’ll leave you with that.’
He bowed, turned and headed back to the gate. Brussel grinned devilishly at the group before following after Kohlrabi, each tooth like an overlarge pea.
Hana felt dizzy and sat down on the ice, holding her knees as she stared down at the green fingers resting before her. On their own they looked like chopped celery sticks.
Pitaya checked her glasses to make sure they were working correctly. She could not believe what she had just seen, and the celery sticks on the ground were not the best of proof, either, for there was no way of telling that they had ever actually been fingers.
‘This is why hanging out with you can sometimes be a bad idea,’ James said to Hana.
‘How can you say that?’ Pitaya asked. ‘She’s your friend.’
James looked at Pitaya in surprise, as if he had just noticed her for the first time. ‘I’m only joking,’ he said apologetically.
‘He’s right, though,’ Hana said through her knees. ‘Sometimes I don’t want to hang out with myself, either.’
‘Don’t say that,’ Henri said. ‘It’s not your fault.’
‘Yeah, how could it be your fault that that guy is such a jerk?’ Pitaya asked. ‘Who was he, anyway? All I know is that his name is Kohlrabi and that he seems to be from a different school.’
‘That about sums it up,’ Hana said.
‘And that other boy seemed like some kind of monster,’ Pitaya said, feeling ill just from the thought of him.
‘Yeah, he reminded me of Kappa,’ Henri said.
‘That exchange student who burst into flames?’ Pitaya asked.
Hana, James and Henri all nodded.
‘But don’t forget that he was actually some kind of river creature,’ Hana said.
‘A very mutated and nasty one,’ James said. Then he had an idea: ‘Hey, what do you think would happen if you shook your dandruff on Brussel?’
‘Probably nothing,’ Hana said. ‘It’d probably be like adding salt to vegetables.’
‘You mean it would make him taste better?’ James asked.
‘I think you guys need to stop talking before I throw up,’ pleaded Pitaya.
‘Sorry,’ James apologised again.
Hana tried to stand back up but one of her skates slipped on the ice, causing her to fall into James. She grabbed onto him for balance as Henri and Pitaya rushed to her sides.
‘Thanks, guys,’ she said as they helped her up. ‘I’m pretty sure I feel like going home now.’
‘That sounds like a good idea,’ Henri said.
‘I’ll see if my parents will let me hang out with you for a bit at your place,’ Pitaya said, her voice tinged with concern.
James took Hana’s hand and skated her over to the gate. His sudden warmth brightened her spirits considerably. She was glad that she had her friends with her then, for she felt that she might have done something crazy otherwise, like run after Kohlrabi and Brussel and wallop them with a dandruff mallet.
They put their shoes back on and returned the skates and keys to the main counter. Walking around in shoes again offered Hana a strange floating sensation, one she actually enjoyed for the short amount of time it lasted. She wondered if she would have been capable of flying if she had worn the skates for another hour or so. Her only real experience with flying had been when a giant chicken lifted her off her front yard and brought her to a grassy battlefield where she had to defend herself against it. Were it not for the whole giant chicken aspect, she felt that the flying might have actually been fun.
James walked with Hana a few paces ahead of Henri and Pitaya, who walked together in blushing silence.
‘I know you don’t like it when I say I’ll beat people up,’ James said confidentially to Hana while the others were out of earshot, ‘but if I ever see those guys again, I’ll make sure they never want to come back.’
Hana smiled despite herself, as she always did when James made his purely boyish attempts at being sweet.
‘Just don’t hurt yourself,’ she said. ‘Otherwise I’ll have to back you up, and I’m definitely not the cleanest fighter around.’
‘If I somehow do get hurt, I hope it’s with one of my eyes,’ James said. ‘I think I’d look pretty cool with an eyepatch.’
‘Anyone would. That doesn’t mean you should get one, though.’
‘I think I have to now,’ James said, grinning at the thought of an eyepatch. ‘I’d let you borrow it sometimes.’
‘You mean for those times when I need to look like a pirate?’
‘I don’t know. That’s practically a daily occurrence.’
‘You’re pretty silly, James,’ Hana told him, saying it almost as a compliment. The group walked up the street to Hana’s place in this fashion, with Henri and Pitaya wishing to say something to each other while Hana and James said everything.
As they walked they came across a strange object suspiciously laid out in the middle of the sidewalk. The more they neared the object, the more it looked like a small bundle of broccoli set on a piece of paper.
‘That has to be some kind of trap,’ Henri said.
‘We better check it out, then,’ Hana said. She felt like nothing could harm her with her friends around – nothing except for a giant chicken or some other dangerous monster, anyway.
‘Be careful,’ Pitaya said.
When they reached the broccoli they realised it was a green hand, though one with patches of dark green buds on the back and not a drop of blood coming out of it. There was no questioning that it had been Brussel’s hand.
‘Did it just fall off him, or what?’ James asked, prodding it with his shoe. ‘It looks like there’s something written on the paper.’
Sure enough, there were words written on the paper in pen, many of them obscured by the severed green hand. James kicked the hand just hard enough that it rolled off the paper, and then Hana lifted the paper from the ground. Henri and Pitaya gathered behind her shoulders to read it with her while James played around with the hand, rolling it in different directions under his foot.
‘“Give yourselves a hand,”’ Pitaya read aloud upon adjusting her glasses.
They then looked from the paper to James, who was now holding the hand up to his face as he inspected it.
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, James,’ Hana said worriedly.
‘I don’t think leaving your hand behind is a good idea, whether you can grow another one or not,’ he said. ‘How can a guy play baseball with only one hand?’
‘Maybe he plays things other than baseball,’ Hana said, her worry increasing more and more every time James poked at the hand.
‘What’s there to play other than baseball?’
‘I don’t wanna say it,’ Hana said. ‘I have the feeling that the moment I say it, the hand’s gonna come to life and poke you in the eye.’
‘Why? That only happens in the cheap kind of horror movies,’ James said.
‘I think you should listen to Hana,’ Pitaya said. ‘Just throw the hand behind a bush or something. It’s grossing me out.’
‘That’s not a bad idea, considering the hand will probably decompose fairly quickly,’ Henri said. ‘You’d not only be getting rid of that thing but helping the environment as well.’
‘What if I want to keep this hand?’ James said as he waved it around in the air. ‘I’m not one to refuse a gift. It says so right in the note that this is for us.’
‘James, you’re being silly,’ Hana said, and this time she definitely did not mean it as a compliment. ‘Just throw it away. It’s a trick.’
‘A trick?’ James asked as he lifted an eyebrow and raised the hand to his face again. ‘Is that what he plays at instead of baseball?’
The hand poked him in the eye as if to say ‘yes’. James held his hands to his face, dropping the green hand back onto the sidewalk.
‘James!’ Hana, Henri and Pitaya cried out at once.
Pitaya immediately stomped on the hand until it became mangled mush, and then she lifted it up like a dirty diaper before tossing it behind some bushes. The bushes shook and snickered, and then Kohlrabi and Brussel sprinted out from behind them, too fast for any of them to catch up. Hana shook her fist at them as they scampered away.
They then turned back to James, who was now sitting on the grass beside the sidewalk. He was still holding one of his hands up to his eye but was actually smiling in spite of the stinging pain. Hana crouched down so she could assess the damage, but his smiling made her want to punch him in the shoulder instead.
‘Are you okay, James?’ Henri asked him.
‘“Okay”?’ he repeated. ‘You have no idea how okay I am. Now I get to wear an eyepatch for sure.’
To Be Continued In Episode Four: The Map of Ultimate Treasure
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
Episode 14
Episode 15
Volume 1