An Outing with a Third Wheel

 A few days after my impromptu teaching gig, I was back on the streets chatting with Nika. We were on our way to a pretty famous bookstore so I could pick up some study materials and other books I’d need for seminars. It was a second-hand store, which was a welcome reprieve for my wallet. Despite working for an alliance of some of the richest governments on Earth, they couldn’t be bothered to advance me a stipend for more than the bare necessities.

Now, there was a reason I had asked Nika to go out with me at this time and place. She may have been slightly impressed (or disturbed) by both Lacey and my ability to handle a classroom, but that wasn’t enough to get me into her good graces. So, ever since I got back from the elementary school, I studied Miklagardian literature as diligently as I could. If I couldn’t impress her with my technical or leadership skills, then I’d impress her by being a refined gentleman.

“John, I can’t believe it. When I met you, I thought you were a stupid foreigner who could only play around with computers. I didn’t realize you were such a cultured man who knew so much about the Miklagardian arts,” Nika would say as she fell into my arms. Then, I could convince her to help me get the algorithm, and freedom and democracy would be saved.

That was the plan, at least, but that plan was predicated on the two of us being alone together.

“Man, I’m starving! We need to hurry up and get to the stadium soon! I want some grub,” Melissa complained.

Unfortunately, that was never going to be the case.

It all started as soon as I answered the door to my apartment. I expected Nika to be at the door, but what greeted me was a mop of brown hair springing in front of my face as I stumbled backwards.

“Huh, so this is your place! Not too shabby, Johnny!” Melissa exclaimed.

“Melissa, what are you doing here?” I asked.

Nika walked up to me with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, John.”

She explained to me that there was an important race going at the Colosseum today. I didn’t even know those still existed, but I stopped myself from interrupting. Apparently, since Tatiana was competing, she had gotten tickets for everyone in the group. I couldn’t remember who that was for a while. I soon placed it with that Princess Girl from the other day, the one with the regnal aura. I was pretty bad with names. The only reason I could remember Nika was because she was the person I had interacted with the most while in Miklagardia. As for Melissa, her name was scarred into my mind through pain. I could still feel a phantom pain from her attack during our introduction.

“I wanted this to be a surprise,” she said with a smile. I hated surprises. They always caught me off guard. “I was hoping to give this to you when it was just the two of us, but Melissa insisted on tagging along.”

“Yeah, they don’t let guests go in the preparation areas, and it’s boring to just sit around waiting, so I’d rather hang out to kill time.”

Because of that logic, there was an unexpected third wheel entering the bookstore with us.

The store itself was surprisingly small. Stacks of books littered the aisles, and I had to take precautions to not tip anything over. The actual building itself was fairly shabby, with dust littering every nook and cranny. There were noticeable cracks in the ceiling. If there was anything that made up for the abysmal experience of actually being in there, it was the prices. Everything was dirt cheap. I suddenly understood why this place was so beloved. But this wasn’t the place to be so easily distracted. It was time for me to flex my literary muscles.

“So, Nika, do you have any recommendations for classic Miklagardian literature? I’ve been reading a lot of Kazantzakis’s works myself lately,” I smoothly asked.

“Kazantzakis? I’ve heard of him. He’s pretty famous. To be honest, I mainly read non-fiction, so I can’t help you much,” she replied with a bashful smile. “You should ask Io. She’s the resident book expert. If you like literature, I’m sure you’d love talking with her.”

Io? Oh, Book Girl! I forgot her name too.

I mentally shook my head. There was no time to worry about names! All the hard research I had done over the past few days went to waste in a matter of seconds. I had no contingency plan. How could I salvage the situation?

Melissa suddenly plopped herself onto Nika’s shouler and taunted her, “Really? Because last time I checked—”

Whatever she had planned on saying, she never got to finish, as Nika shoved her back over a pile of books before shoving one off the shelf and into my hands.

“Well, if you like literature, I’ve heard this is pretty popular,” she quickly uttered before neatly ordering up all the books knocked over by Melissa's earlier tumble.

I gave the book a once-over. “Love From the Fatherland, huh,” I muttered the title out before checking the summary. It was about an alternate history where Miklagardia had been completely conquered after the Second World War by its neighboring rival Anatolia, and the efforts of a ragtag group of misfits to liberate the country. Skimming through, it had a strangely self-aggrandizing nationalist strain even in the first few chapters. That must be what’s popular here, but I didn’t care much for it, so I threw it back on the shelf and looked for another book. To my horror, as I scrolled through the shelves, most of the novels were about alternate history scenarios. These people must have been stuck in the past. Wasn’t there anything remotely focused on the future? I’d have even taken some fantasy shlock over this!

Melissa finally jumped off the floor and made her way over to me.

“If you don’t like any of those, check this out,” she said as she pointed to a book on the bottom of the shelf.

I pulled it out and glanced at the cover of The Unusual Student at Supernatural Academy. It seemed like a cheap, young adult pulp novel.

“That’s a pretty fun series. It’s about a teenager who’s looked down for not having any magic powers, but his abilities are so strong that the school can’t measure them.”

“I see,” I replied without thinking. I decided to read a bit of it to kill some time. It may have been volume seventeen, but I could always start from the beginning later if I wanted.

The novel itself was mindless, but oddly enough, I got engrossed in what little I read. Though one aspect stuck out to me.

“Melissa, why are all the foreigners in this book evil?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, all the Westerners are malicious and either want to exploit or genocide the Miklagardians, and the Anatolians are all corrupt, drooling idiots or violent savages.”

“I don’t know, they’re just characters, and someone has to be the antagonist. I think you’re just overthinking things.”

“I am? Is there any foreigner in this book that’s not a bad guy?”

Melissa flipped the book open to one of the illustrations and held it close to my face. It was an image of a blonde girl in fairly skimpy clothes with an extraordinarily large bust.

“See, that’s Becky. She’s a transfer student from Ustasia, kinda like you. She’s pretty arrogant and ditzy, but she gets better as the story goes on. She kinda reminds me of you, except Nika says you’re pretty smart.”

I had no idea what to say in response to that. Thankfully, Nika saved me from this awkward dilemma.

“Don’t recommend that trash to him,” she said as she finished stacking up the fallen books. She picked one up to show it to me. “I know you wanted classic Miklagardian literature, but this is a foreign classic that’s pretty popular here. Tirant lo Blanch was a huge influence on works like Don Quixote, so you may find it interesting.”

That actually sounded pretty interesting. I opened the book and read the translator’s introduction. Within the first page, she praised the work as one of the first true alternate histories. I shut the book and placed it back on the stack.

“Let’s just get our study books and go to the stadium,” I grumbled.

A couple hours later we were in our seats, which were actually stone benches. I wished they at least had a backrest or some cushions.

Melissa had persuaded (begged) us to get snacks with her, which we were all munching away on as we watched the first races commence. I was told it was a placenta cake, a mix of dough, cheese, and honey. It sounded like a dubious combination, but it was surprisingly tasty.

“Honey, honey, honey in my tummy, tummy, tummy!” Melissa chanted as she scarfed it down.

“I forgot to ask: is she always like this?” I asked Nika.

Nika sighed, defeated. “Yeah.” She looked up at me. “But don’t get me wrong. She’s a great friend, just… overbearing at times.”

We both laughed at that as we continued to watch the races. To be honest, I thought it would be like Formula One. You know, with cars. Instead it turned out to be a horse race. It was pretty boring. They weren’t even that fast. I tried to alleviate my boredom by turning to Nika.

“Hey, do they have anything else here, like chariots or something?”

“No, they only do that twice a year. It takes a lot of setup. Oh! It’s Tatiana! Her race is up next.”

Nika pointed up at the announcement screen.

Melissa jumped out of her seat.

“Alright, Nika, you know what time it is?” she shouted in excitement.

The two locked eyes before proclaiming in unison, “Time to gamble!”.

“Gamble?” I asked in confusion.