Welcome to Bordertown by Ellen Kushner, Holly Black (editors) Page B

Goodbye, Steadfast.” She pats Rosco one last time.
    “His name is Rosco.”
    “No, it isn’t,” she says, and then she takes off across the grass.
    *   *   *
     
    Gurgi had disappeared into the darkness—and the darkness of Riverside was no place to be looking for monsters. Trish took her package of fish up to Carmine Street. It was the only thing she could think of to do. She stopped at a gallery to ask the way.
    “Are you doing the Smell Installation?” asked the ridiculously tall elf pinning uninflated balloons to the ceiling on tiptoe. “Because whatever they told you, that’s not till next week.”
    “N-no,” Trish stammered, “I’m looking for—”
    “Oh,” said the elf. “End of the street. Bright pink. Big house. Can’t miss it.”
    She raised her hand to knock, but just as her knuckles grazed the wood, the bronze head of the doorknob shouted,
“It’s oooopen!”
    She jumped about a foot in the air. The door opened inward, and she stepped inside.
    “Cheerio, m’dearie-o!” It was a halfie with scraggly teeth and even scragglier hair that fell long and yellow from under his battered top hat. Behind him, the high-ceilinged room teemed with people of all shapes and styles.
    “Um,” said Trish, clutching her bag. “Is Cam here?”
    “Everyone’s here. We
do
just let in anyone, you know. Oh, fish!” The halfie took the bag. “How thoughtful! Spider will be pleased.He loves to feed the multitudes. Now, who brought the loaves?”
    “Tara!” Cam edged around him to hug her. “You made it! Tara, this is Billy Buttons. He doesn’t live here, he just acts like he does. Billy, Tara.”
    The halfie bowed, and declaimed:
    The harp that once through Tara’s halls
    The soul of music shed,
    Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls,
    As if that soul were fled.
     
    Ignoring him, Cam pulled Trish deeper into the room and up to a girl with long brown hair and a pointy little chin—a mortal, like her. Good. Trish had nothing against halfies, but she didn’t want to be the only human here.
    “Tara, this is my girlfriend, Seal.”
    Seal looked nice. Trish had had a couple of girlfriends in high school. She hadn’t gotten around to writing to them from Bordertown yet. Jenny, who had also read
The Lord of the Rings
, and Sue, who worked at Denny’s with her and was very funny. They both thought she was crazy to go away to college. Jenny was working at the nursing home, and Sue was staying at Denny’s, waiting for her boyfriend to propose so she could quit. Or they had been, thirteen years ago. They were both probably moms by now. All grown up. Thinking about it made her head feel all buzzy again.
    “Seal works backstage at the Changeling Theater, like me.”
    “Hi, Seal!” Trish said brightly. “It’s nice to meet you!”
    Cam put her arm around Seal, and Seal leaned her brown head on Cam’s cute embroidered vest.
    Oh. Oh, no.
    Was
that
the kind of party this was? Did they think—did they think she … Trish looked wildly around the room. Because she lived at Carterhaugh, did they …?
    But Billy Buttons was right. Anyone, everyone, was here. Guys and girls were necking and flirting, and so were guys and guys, doing stuff she thought should embarrass them in public, but apparently not. Cam and Seal were as proper as PTA ladies, by contrast.
    “There’s apple wine,” Cam said happily. “Hector says it’s from over the Border, but he’s just trying to impress Poplar—”
    “Which is pretty hilarious,” said Seal, “considering she’s actually Trueblood.”
    “Shhh!” Cam mock-shushed her. “She thinks she’s passing!”
    “Milords and Ladies of the Royal Court!” A guy with a spiky mustache, in a tuxedo and a white bow tie, had jumped up on a chair.
    “Oh, good!” said Cam. “Lord Buckley’s here.”
    “Is he going to do the Gettysburg Address again?”
    He was:
    “Four big hits and seven licks ago, our before daddies swung forth upon this sweet groovy land a swingin’,