Free Meeting by Nina Hoffman

out , Maya thought.
    Maya straightened and Kachik-Vati’s arms drew away from her, lifting in a pose like the petals of a flower, some kind of salute.
    “Good get-together, good get-apart, small sibs,” Kachik said.
    “You, too,” Maya said.
    “I will tell the others about your puzzle, small sibs, and someones will come and help you solve it.” Kachik’s arms danced in a spiral and he moved or levitated back. “Farewell.”
    “Farewell, big brothers.” She waved both hands in mirroring dance moves, and Rimi fluttered like a scarf in the wind.
    Maya went back to where her pack rested on the floor. She pulled the straps over her shoulders and shifted to settle the pack on her back.
    “Are you rested?” Noona murmured to Kachik-Vati. “Are you fed enough to travel?”
    “Both,” Kachik said.
    “Thank you for the graciousness and gift of your presence,” Noona said. She opened another door. It led into the Portal Chamber. Someone Maya didn’t know rose from a bench along the wall there and came forward. “These ones are ready to return to their home,” Noona told the other woman, who nodded and led Kachik-Vati away.
    Noona shut the door, took Maya’s hand, and escorted her from the tea room.

ELEVEN
    Noona shut the tea room door carefully and lifted her hands to gesture at the door wards. She sang. The colored spirals and whorls lit up, and the door clicked, lock engaged.
    Maya checked her watch. It was four thirty. It felt much later.
    They climbed up out of the world under the house and went through the door to the ground floor. Noona shut that door carefully as well, and Maya glanced back at it. A wide door with no knob on the outside.
    They went toward the front door. Noona stopped in the hall outside Columba’s apartment. She touched Maya’s shoulder. “You handled yourself well and made a good connection for us, youngster. It is rare we get a visit from a mrudim , and, of course, this is only our second sissimi traveler, or third, if we count your Rimi. You do our family proud. Do you want to go home now?”
    How about me ? How did I handle myself? How can I, when I don’t even have hands? Rimi wondered. I do count. I can do that even without fingers.
    You can have hands whenever you want. And you’re wonderful, Maya thought, and smiled.
    I know. You know. I guess that’s enough.
    “Yeah, I guess I’d better head home,” Maya said aloud. “Did Travis leave already?”
    “I don’t know. Columba will know.” Noona knocked on Columba’s door.
    Columba opened the door. “Hey,” she said. “How’d it go?”
    Noona laid her hand on Maya’s shoulder. “A successful meeting, it seemed.”
    “Maya?” Columba asked.
    “Good,” Maya said. “They were really nice to us.”
    “We almost never see mrudim . Let alone sissimi . You guys got along okay?”
    “Yeah,” Maya said. She wondered if there was some manual that told you how often various different kinds of people came through the portal. Maybe like a monster manual for D&D.
    We did better than okay , thought Rimi. I have a lot of new things to try. Let’s go to the woods.
    “Did Travis leave already?” Maya asked Columba.
    “Yeah. Travis has left the building.” Columba smiled as she said it, as though that was a joke.
    “But the other guys are still off on a field trip?”
    “Estimated time of return from that one is around midnight,” Columba said.
    “Jeez,” said Maya. “How do they manage to get their homework done and get any sleep when all that’s going on?”
    “Sometimes they don’t,” Columba said.
    “Huh.”
    “Sometimes you won’t, either, once you start going on field trips. I hope your parents are relaxed about grades.”
    “I thought all you guys got excellent grades.”
    Columba frowned. “Yes, in general, the children seem to do well in school.” She shrugged. “They work very, very hard.”
    “On that note,” said Maya, “guess I should go do some of my own homework. Thanks for the