1. Blue Christmas #2
And yet... despite how foreign Tokyo was to a Yankee like Delilah, even so there was something oddly familiar about it all.
It took Delilah a while, sitting by the window with her coffee, to figure out why.
A quick query to her phone revealed that Christians comprise maybe three percent of Japan’s population; interestingly that was roughly the same percentage to be found in Delilah’s witch-dominated—which is to say pagan—hometown.
And once the traditional reason for the season is cut loose from its theological moorings, well.
All bets were off. With no Christ Child to bring solemnity to the proceedings, Christmas quickly spun off its axis into rock ’n’ roller-zoku Santas and a strange devotion to fried chicken.
Delilah was still mulling the cultural connection she’d found when a huge crash emanated from the bathroom. It was the sound of multiple haircare products hitting porcelain, followed by a hearty “Oh for crying out loud!”
Delilah wasn’t startled by the racket. She was barely even surprised by it. With a deep sigh, she hauled herself to standing and moped over to the bathroom door. “What do you want?”
There behind the glass shower door stood her sister, sopping wet in blue jeans and a grey Stanford University sweatshirt. Scarlett grinned widely. “Finally! There you are! This is the seventh damn bathroom I’ve checked in this hotel.”
“It took you seven tries to locate my room?” tsked Delilah. “Still lousy at locator spells, I see. And why are you wet?”
“I was never lousy! It’s not my fault that.
.. ugh !” Scarlett freed herself from the pile of shampoo bottles and climbed out of the shower.
“You’ve got way too many haircare products—it’s ridiculous.
Anyhow, it’s not my fault that the locator spell was invented long before people could live fifty stories in mid-air.
The spell gave me your latitude and longitude but not your altitude , which is a bit of a challenge in a building of this—ooh, is that a bidet? How class!”
Delilah frowned. “It’s very simple to adjust the spell for altitude, if you just... You know what, no. I’m not doing Spell 101 with you. Get out of my shower and go home.”
“Cut me some slack.” Scarlett yanked a towel off the rack and tried to dry herself off.
“I’m having a hell of a day. I’ve been all over this hotel looking for you.
I’ve blundered into at least two close encounters of the infidelity kind, then a poor chap nearly opened his jugular when he saw me behind him in the shaving mirror. And?—”
“None of which explains why you’re wet.”
“ And ... I’m getting to that... a Belgian woman was trying to enjoy a relaxing bubble bath when I was suddenly in the tub with her.
Which made her, shall we say, rather the opposite of relaxed.
In fact, we should probably get going because I’m pretty sure she’s summoning the authorities as we speak. ”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“We need you at home, Del.”
“I’m busy. Go handle it yourself.”
“Haven’t you seen my texts?”
“I assumed it was obvious that I’m ignoring your texts, Scar.”
“But I used the little police-car-light emoji! Everybody knows to always respond to the police-car-light emoji! Why haven’t you texted me back?”
“Oh ho.” Delilah rolled her eyes at her sister’s obvious hypocrisy. “You don’t like being ghosted, eh? Well, little sister, I’ve only been ignoring you for a few weeks. Imagine what it’s like to be ignored for ten years.”
“Ah.” Scarlett gave up on the towel, dropping it by her feet. “I’m still not forgiven, I see. Okay. And when does the statute of limitations run out, exactly?”
“Um, not sure. Check back around 2035.”
“Sis...” Scarlett reached out to take her sister’s hands. “We need you. We—hang on a second, where’s Luna? Isn’t she traveling with you? What, does she have her own room?”
“No, Luna is...” Delilah jerked her hands away. “Well, in fact I don’t know where Luna is.”
“What the hell? Why not?”
Del just shrugged. “Haven’t spoken.”
“Did you have a fight with our baby sister? Cripes, Del, who fights with Luna ? Picking a fight with Luna is like picking a fight with one of those adorable pink salamanders with the...” Scarlett put her hands atop her head and wiggled her fingers.
“One of those... what the hell are they called...”
“Axolotls, dum dum. And it wasn’t a fight, we just went separate ways.
Look, when I agreed to travel with her, I thought I was going to see the world.
Like, the whole world. Not just witch covens.
But all Luna wants to do is study. Her last idea was us going to New York City, which sounded great until I found out we were going to spend the whole time in the damn subway tunnels!
If I go New York, I want to... I don’t even know. I want to see Hamilton or whatever.”
Scarlett made a face. “ Hamilton is so 2016. People aren’t still into Hamilton .”
“Well whatever! What are people into?”
“I don’t know... the new version of Cabaret , I guess?”
Now it was Delilah’s turn to make a face. “ Cabaret ? Again?”
“Never stops being relevant, unfortunately. Look, Del, I don’t have time for Broadway recaps, okay? The hotel needs you. Oak Haven needs you. And?—”
“I told you, I’m not interested.”
“Mama needs you.”
Delilah met her sister’s eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that. But I worked that reservation desk for ten years, while everybody around me got to run around and live their lives and get into all kinds of mischief. It’s my turn now.”
“Listen—”
“No, I won’t hear it.” Delilah turned away, gazing at herself in the bathroom mirror. “I mean, just look at me. I got old behind that desk.”
“You’re not old.” Scarlett gingerly moved closer, standing beside her sister, the two of them framed in the too-bright neon light of the hotel bathroom. “You can’t be happy out here on your own, Del. Come on. I mean... Tokyo ?”
“Why not Tokyo ? Luna traipses all over the world; nobody ever says a thing about it.”
“Yeah,” Scarlett said gently. “That’s Luna. That’s not you. What are you trying to prove, staying so far away for so long?” She slipped one arm around her sister’s waist, squeezing her in an affectionate side-hug. “And at Christmas, no less?”
“I hate Christmas. I don’t believe in Christmas.”
“I know you don’t, kid. But Christmas believes in you.”
Delilah sighed, staring at her sister in the mirror. “I’m sorry. Really, I am. But I won’t go home. There is nothing you can say that will make me return to Oak Haven right now. Absolutely nothing in the world that would?—”
“The magicians are back.”
Delilah spun around to face Scarlett directly. “What?”
Scarlett nodded. “And it’s worse this time.”
“I’ll pack my things.”