Guest art by Cinanti Astria Johansjah and Lo Ning Wong
Episode 11: Accidental Music
Pitaya was in training for an upcoming sprinting contest and asked Hana to help her after school. Hana readily agreed as she was always willing to support her friends, but she still had to wonder what she could do to help.
‘I’m going jogging around the city, and I think it would help if you maybe threw stuff at me,’ Pitaya said. ‘Nothing all that hard, though. Maybe bouncy balls. I have a big box of bouncy balls in my basement.’
‘I don’t know if throwing things at you is such a good idea,’ Hana said. ‘How about if I just jog with you?’ Then, after thinking about it, she asked what she considered to be a far more important question: ‘Why do you have so many bouncy balls?’
‘My father runs the bouncy ball factory here,’ Pitaya explained. ‘When I was younger he’d always come home with prototypes for new designs. Some of them are really intricate, with entire galaxies inside of them. Others have things like photos of pigs. Anyway, I got sick of them pretty quickly, so now there’s this large box downstairs.’
‘No wonder you’re so athletic,’ Hana said. ‘I find that I chase after bouncy balls more than I actually play with them.’
Pitaya nodded at the repressed memories. Then she closed her eyes and shook all of the bouncy balls out of her head.
‘Okay, just jogging with me should be fine,’ she agreed with a smile. ‘Thanks, Hana.’
They walked to Pitaya’s house, where Pitaya let her family know that she would be out training, and Hana called her parents to let them know that she would be out disappearing for an hour or so.
‘Can you pick up some sourdough on your way back?’ Hana’s mother asked her over the receiver.
Hana checked her skirt pocket for change. She had just enough for either a loaf of sourdough or some bubblegum, and since sourdough bread was actually sweeter to her than bubblegum, she gladly accepted her mother’s request.
‘Just don’t eat it all on your own like you did last time, Mom.’
‘That was a half hour I’ll never regret,’ her mother said.
Pitaya joined Hana as Hana exchanged goodbyes with her mother and hung up the phone. Pitaya had changed out of her school clothes and into a more functional t-shirt and shorts. She had also added pink clips to her long black hair.
They each drank two glasses of water.
‘How okay are you with running uphill?’ Pitaya asked Hana as she performed some quick stretches.
‘Um, I try to avoid it when I can,’ Hana replied honestly. ‘Are you sure you have to do all this just to prepare for a sprinting contest?’
Pitaya thought about it for a moment while holding one leg behind her back. ‘Truthfully, I just like running in general. That’s why I play basketball. The idea of going as fast as I can just appeals to me for some reason.’
She dropped her leg and lifted the other.
‘I suppose it makes you good at running away from things,’ Hana said.
Pitaya smiled. ‘Or running towards things,’ she said.
Hana realised just how much stronger than herself her friend was. She knew that, when she could, she had opted to run away from most of the monsters she had faced last year. It was only this year that she had found the confidence to face them head on. Pitaya, on the other hand, never tried running away from anything. She had even stuck with Hana, James and Henri after turning them into a platypus, an elephant and a rockhopper penguin with her singing. Not only that, she had found them cute.
‘Do you still sing at all, Pitaya?’ Hana asked her as they put on their shoes.
‘I sing to myself sometimes,’ Pitaya admitted. ‘I sing in the bath and I sing when I’m doing my homework. But I only do it when I know nobody is around. I have to pretend I’m singing when we sing songs at school. Luckily none of the teachers have noticed. Oh, and sometimes I hum while I’m doing stretches.’
Hana looked at her warily.
‘But not today,’ Pitaya assured her, smiling.
They went outside, which was still as hot as they had left it. Hana ran her fingers through her hair to remove some of the sweat but sent out a cascade of dandruff flakes instead. The sun, a molten, golden orb in the sky, seemed to be laughing at her with its unbearable waves of heat.
‘A perfect day to run, run, run,’ Hana said, already panting as they jogged up the street.
‘I have the route mapped out in my head,’ Pitaya told her. ‘We’ll hit a water fountain every fifteen minutes.’
‘Every fifteen minutes?’ Hana asked, suddenly worried. ‘How long are we gonna do this for?’
They were now running up the first of many hills that Pitaya had desired for the afternoon’s training.
‘Um, I personally run for about an hour everyday after school,’ she said. ‘But we can stop earlier, if you like. I won’t mind.’
‘No, this is good,’ Hana said, grinning through the exertion. ‘I need to do more stuff like this to get better at baseball.’
They continued jogging until they reached the first water fountain, which was situated along a path that cut through a small park, and which Hana threw herself onto greedily. She gulped down the cherished liquid and then sat on the path, catching her breath while Pitaya took measured, almost graceful sips from the fountain.
‘Ready?’ Pitaya asked Hana.
Hana shielded her eyes to look up at her friend, for the sun was acting as a halo around her head.
‘Yeah,’ Hana said, her mouth saying what her brain was a long way from thinking. ‘I think I can make it to the next fountain, at least.’
Pitaya smiled. ‘Thanks,’ she said.
Pitaya helped Hana up from the path. Together they continued jogging through the park and back onto the sidewalk of an empty street. This was where they found the second hill.
‘I’d rather be fighting a raisin,’ Hana whined, but then she bit her tongue. She knew that being around someone who complained all the time was never fun – that was what James had told her, at least. This was her chance to prove to herself that she could be as strong as Pitaya, if she put her mind and body to it. She pressed onwards without another word.
Pitaya jogged in silence as well, intent on conquering the hill. Even Kohlrabi, who had appeared out of nowhere to jog alongside them, did not let a single syllable pass between his lips.
Hana and Pitaya turned their heads to look at him and gasped. Kohlrabi smirked.
‘Hello to you as well, my precious rivals,’ he said. There was a glint in his eyes that was either the reflection of the sun or the light of pure evil; Hana could not be sure.
‘Kohlrabi!’ Hana cried out as if it were the most vile word she knew.
‘You’re wearing out my name,’ Kohlrabi told her with his devilish grin. ‘Keep saying it like that and I’ll have to get a new one.’
The three of them reached the top of the hill and continued jogging down the street.
‘You know, I’m starting to get really sick of you,’ Pitaya said to Kohlrabi.
‘Splendid!’ Kohlrabi said. ‘That’s better than the usual “na na na na na” I hear from Hana. She can barely put together a coherent sentence.’
Hana felt her face turn red and was about to shout at Kohlrabi but Pitaya beat her to it:
‘Na na na na na!’ Pitaya shouted out in anger, the non-words escaping from her mouth like a schoolyard sing-along taunt.
Hana blinked in surprise, first at Pitaya’s burst of aggression and then at Kohlrabi’s new features: as soon as the taunt had left Pitaya’s lips, black fur appeared around Kohlrabi’s eyes, and she was positive that those were small, furry ears poking out through the hair on top of his head. He had essentially turned into the creature that knocked over the garbage cans in front of Hana’s house every garbage night: a raccoon. A dirty, smelly, messy raccoon. In a green school uniform. With a perpetually evil glint in his eyes.
‘What are you two staring at?’ Kohlrabi asked suspiciously, slitting his eyes. His teeth had become small and sharp.
He stopped jogging and felt around his mouth with his tongue, and then with his fingers.
‘Er,’ he said.
Hana and Pitaya kept jogging, leaving the Rakohlrabi behind.
‘What should we do?’ Pitaya asked, ashamed of her outburst and very much guilt-stricken over turning Kohlrabi into a raccoon.
‘I honestly don’t know,’ Hana said. ‘Hey, is that a water fountain?’
They jogged to a water fountain that stood beside the sidewalk about a block ahead of them. Hana once again drank as much as she could before sitting her water-filled body on the ground. Then she touched her face.
‘Do I . . . look normal to you?’ she asked Pitaya worriedly.
‘You’re fine,’ Pitaya assured her. ‘My singing only seems to affect one person at a time. I think we should go back and help out Kohlrabi.’
‘But he’s evil!’
‘I’m not going to disagree with you,’ Pitaya said. ‘But while he may be evil, I’m not. At least I hope I’m not. I don’t want to leave him there.’
Hana thought about it for a moment and then sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said. ‘If we don’t help him then we’re just playing his stupid rivalry game. Let’s go help him out.’
Helping Kohlrabi proved to be harder than expected – he ran away as soon as they raced towards him, and Hana was too out of breath to keep up with Pitaya, let alone catch Kohlrabi.
‘Go on ahead,’ Hana panted to Pitaya, who was already running on ahead of her.
Kohlrabi had reached the park that Hana and Pitaya had jogged through. Pitaya put all of her energy into one final sprint, sending her like a pink bolt of lightning to the sort-of raccoon. She landed on top of his back and the pair fell to the grassy ground with a thud and a chitter.
‘Get off me!’ Kohlrabi cried out as he tried to squirm away. Pitaya had pinned his arms behind his back, making escape impossible.
‘I’m sorry about this, but you’re going to need me and Hana to change you back,’ she explained.
Hana finally made it to the pile of Kohlrabi and Pitaya and slumped down.
‘I don’t know how you do this every day,’ she said, still catching her breath. ‘Pretty girls like you aren’t supposed to be this fast.’ She then took in a deep, deep breath and let it out. ‘I’m glad you are, though. Otherwise we’d never be able to catch him.’
‘How are you doing down there?’ she then asked Kohlrabi.
Kohlrabi snarled and once more tried to break free in an attempt that was just as ineffectual as the others.
‘Good to hear,’ Hana said. ‘If you guys need me, I’ll be passed-out over by that water fountain.’ She pointed in the wrong direction and then weakly walked in the right one.
‘Stop fidgeting,’ Pitaya told Kohlrabi. ‘We’ll turn you back to normal and then things can go back to how they were. The last thing I want to do is hurt anybody, even if they’re as annoying as you are.’
Kohlrabi grunted in response.
‘I don’t think anyone would mind if you kept on being as talkative as you are now, though.’
Hana returned to them looking rested and refreshed with water. She pulled her arm behind her head, stretched, and then gazed down at Kohlrabi with her arms crossed.
‘Are you going to be a good villain and come along with us?’ she asked.
‘Do I have a choice?’ Kohlrabi asked back.
Both Hana and Pitaya shook their heads.
‘Then let’s get it over with,’ Kohlrabi said, and Pitaya climbed off him.
Kohlrabi stood up and began the tedious task of wiping and patting all of the dirt off his school uniform. Hana and Pitaya tried to wait patiently during this process, but after five minutes of it they had to force him to stop.
‘But there’s still a patch of dirt on my elbow!’ Kohlrabi cried out. ‘And I think there’s a blade of grass on my back.’
Pitaya picked off the blade of grass for him. Hana, however, was not about to wipe away the dirt on his elbow.
‘So here’s the plan, which is thankfully very simple: we’re going to go to my place and play a tape backwards of Pitaya singing. That’ll reverse the effects of your raccoon face. I personally think the raccoon face is an improvement over the old one, but I don’t think many adults will agree with me.’
‘Yes, ha ha,’ Kohlrabi said bitterly.
The trio began the trek to Hana’s place. They walked in a short line with Kohlrabi held captive between Hana and Pitaya, to better prevent him from fleeing and to better hide his face from anyone passing by. Hana just hoped Kohlrabi would not bring up her dandruff powers in front of Pitaya.
‘Do you live around here?’ Pitaya asked Kohlrabi in an attempt at polite conversation.
‘That is obviously none of your concern,’ spat out Kohlrabi.
‘Well, I live over there,’ she said, pointing downhill as they crossed the street. ‘And Hana lives over there.’ She pointed straight ahead of them. ‘So where do you live?’
Without saying anything, Kohlrabi turned and pointed behind them as they walked.
‘It’s no wonder our paths converged, then,’ she said, smiling at him.
Kohlrabi seemed to be forcing himself not to nod.
‘I’m glad I read enough books to understand what that means,’ Hana said.
When they finally reached Hana’s house, they stood in front of it for a moment at Kohlrabi’s request.
‘It’s not how I imagined it,’ he said, wrinkling his tiny black nose.
‘What were you expecting?’ Hana asked as she broke from the group and headed to the front porch.
‘A mansion,’ he said, staring at the house suspiciously as if it would transform into something else at any moment. ‘Or a tower made entirely out of ice.’
Hana was thankful he did not say dandruff.
Kohlrabi and Pitaya followed after her and together the unlikely trio entered her home, closing off the world behind them with the simple shutting of the front door. Hana and Pitaya took off their shoes and placed them on the mat, where the shoes of Hana’s mother and father were, in addition to the three pairs of her sister. From the living room came Hana’s mother’s voice, hungrily filling the vestibule: ‘Did you bring the sourdough, Hana?’
Hana slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand.
‘No! I’m sorry! I brought some people instead.’
‘Did they bring sourdough?’
The question made Hana wonder. She looked to Kohlrabi and Pitaya in case they had actually brought some and were just hiding it from her. Pitaya shook her head and Kohlrabi looked at her grumpily.
‘Doesn’t look like it,’ she called back to her mother.
There was silence for a time, with the only exception being the continuous background noise of the tv. At one point Hana believed she heard light sobbing, but she did her best to attribute it to some tv drama. Her mother never responded.
‘Okay, I guess that means it’s all right to have you over,’ she said to Pitaya and Kohlrabi. ‘Let’s go up to my room and make Kohlrabi a human again.’
‘Yes, let’s,’ Kohlrabi said.
Hana forced him to remove his shoes first. He grumbled as he did so.
As they ascended the stairs, Hana thought of the orange balls hanging from the tree outside her parents’ bedroom. She felt that, as Kohlrabi was right there with her, she might as well politely interrogate him about them. They were about to pass the open doorway to her parents’ room when she suddenly halted, nearly sending Pitaya and Kohlrabi crashing into her. She turned to face them and pointed out the tree, which could clearly be seen just outside her parents’ window.
‘Do those look familiar to you?’ she asked Kohlrabi, watching his face for any reaction.
‘I’m not sure I understand what you mean,’ he said, and she felt she could detect legitimate confusion within his raccoon scowl. ‘Are you referring to the oranges?’
‘They’re not oranges,’ she explained. ‘Well, they’re orange but you can’t eat them. Inside of them are robotic crabs.’
Kohlrabi looked from Hana to the tree. ‘This is a ludicrous trick you’re trying to play on me,’ he said.
‘Do you honestly know nothing about them?’ Hana asked.
‘If I did, I would probably lie about it,’ he said. ‘But I don’t. Your robotic crabs have nothing to do with me.’
‘I see.’
They continued down the hall to Hana’s room. Pitaya walked beside Hana and whispered to her:
‘You never told me about the orange balls.’
‘I don’t think whispering matters that much when you-know-who is right behind us,’ Hana said. ‘But you’re right, I didn’t. Sorry.’
‘It’s all right.’
‘What are you two whispering about up there?’ asked you-know-who sarcastically.
In Hana’s room Pitaya stood guard beside Kohlrabi while Hana looked for the tape recorder. She found it buried under various science fiction anthologies behind her bed. After blowing a layer of dandruff off of it she brought it over to Pitaya.
‘I’ll press record and then you can sing something,’ she told her friend. ‘It doesn’t matter what it is.’
Pitaya nodded and took a deep breath. She was always nervous about singing in front of people, especially since it tended to end with the audience turning into animals. Hana pressed Record and Pitaya exhaled. She sang the beginning of her favourite song and then Hana stopped the tape.
‘Okay, got it,’ Hana said, snorting as she spoke. Then she sighed, because she saw that Pitaya and Kohlrabi were staring at her face.
‘I don’t even want to know,’ she said. Kohlrabi was about to tell her anyway, but Hana pressed Play and Rewind at the same time on the tape recorder, causing Pitaya’s reversed vocals to pour out of the recorder’s tinny speaker.
Kohlrabi’s raccoon parts immediately dropped from his head. Hana looked down and saw that her snout had come off as well. Pitaya looked at the animal bits in disgust.
‘There’s a problem solved,’ Hana said happily. ‘Now all we have to do is get this Kohlrabi out of my house.’
Kohlrabi was feeling his face and head to make sure his features had completely returned to normal. He then nodded satisfactorily to himself when he found that it was so.
‘Time to get out of this sty,’ he said.
Hana clenched her teeth at the remark. ‘Follow me,’ she seethed.
Pitaya followed as Hana led Kohlrabi back to the vestibule. Hana stood with her arms crossed and tapped her foot impatiently while waiting for Kohlrabi to finish tying his shoes.
Hana’s mother came into the short hallway from the living room and cheerily greeted the three of them.
‘I haven’t seen this boy before,’ she said. ‘He sure looks cleaner than James.’
‘My name is Kohlrabi,’ he said, bowing to Hana’s mother. ‘I am Hana’s rival. It is a pleasure to meet you.’
‘Oh, how nice!’ she said smilingly. ‘I know Hana has needed a rival for some time now. Hopefully this’ll make her study harder.’
Hana tried not to roll her eyes at her mother’s misunderstanding.
‘He’s going home now,’ she told her mother. ‘Try not to wave goodbye to him as he leaves.’
Hana’s mother smiled confusedly at her and then headed into the kitchen. The trio waited a few moments to make sure she was out of earshot before they spoke again.
‘Time for you to shoo,’ Hana said to Kohlrabi as she opened the door for him.
‘This changes nothing,’ Kohlrabi said as he stepped onto the porch. ‘If anything, it has only upped the ante. Our rivalry will be the thing of legend. To think that your little friend can turn people into animals! It’s certainly more elegant than your ability to—’
But Hana closed the door on him.
To Be Continued In Episode Twelve: Speaking in Ghosts
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
Volume 1