Alliances

 “Can I learn to sword fight?” Anna asked.

“Sure!”

“No.”

“Why?” Yuuki asked.

He looked at Ajani. Last week, Yuuki would have thought the African fae’s agreement was an attempt to access Anna’s human energy. Now, he knew Ajani was enthralled by anything to do with sword play.

“I’m a sword blerd—OK, a blerd in general,” Ajani admitted to Yuuki while trying to convince him to watch another human movie.

Yuuki looked at Rina. Anna’s aunt still didn’t trust him. He could feel it the moment she threw an energetic shield around her niece. It was a powerful one, easily able to stop a lesser fae and slow down a powerful one, if it meant her harm.

Ajani reached out to touch Anna on her nose. “Boop,” he said.

Anna giggled.

Yuuki ruffled the child’s hair. “Your wards are as strong as ever Rina-san, but as you can see there is no intent to harm Anna. Anna-chan, I still want to know why. The truth now. It’s only fair since I’m sworn to tell you the truth. You promised to never ask me to do something I’m not comfortable with, and I’m not comfortable without the truth.”

“The sword fight you had in Philly sounded cool,” Anna said.

“It was,” Ajani agreed.

“And learning magic with Titi Rina was cool,” Anna added. “I guess, it’s just, you’re both cool.”

Something in the way she held her head sparked Yuuki’s memory. I want to be just like you, big brother, Giichi had said. The pain blindsided him for a moment. He looked at Rina’s anxious expression.

“Fine, on two conditions. Firstly, promise me you won’t go out seeking fights. Second, your aunt must approve.”

“Please, Titi Rina. Pleeeease.”

“We can discuss things privately if you’d like,” Yuuki said to Rina.

“I’d expect the same level of honesty you have with Anna. At minimum.”

Clever, he thought. But not unexpected. A proper witch had to be.

Yuuki bowed, his three fox tails swishing. “Of course.”

“I get to help too,” Ajani said.

“If we come to an agreement,” Yuuki and Rina said at the same time.

 Rina smiled.

Alliances have been built on less, Yuuki thought. This was a start.

Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own by U2

Liner Notes for this Groove: This bit of flash fiction is linked to the Friday Writings at Poets and Storytellers United.

Starting Over

Emilio’s hair was thinner than Rina remembered, but he still had Papi’s smile.

“Will you be in town long, hermanita?” he asked as they stood outside the funeral home.

“Just until the burial. You know how it is owning a business. Thanks again for the loan.”

“Please, I’m happy to help family. You seem happier owning a coffee shop than you did in an office. And much happier single than married to that cheating sinverguenza.”

Rina smiled. “Thanks for having my back. That’s more than some people did.”

“Speaking of which…”

“No, don’t bring up Angi, Emilio. Mami’s death was hard on all of us with Papi being gone less than a year. Her trying to spin my marriage problems as trivial next to one mediocre college grade was bullshit.”

“That was a long time ago. She’s married with a child now. Look.” He took out his phone and showed her a picture of Angi’s family. “Anna should know her aunt.”

Rina saw the concern in his eyes. “Is everything OK with them, Emilio?”

“Angi and Fernando are fine. It’s just—Anna reminds me a little of you when you were young.”

Ah, the Gutierrez gift for understatement. Rina couldn’t resist pushing. “In what way?”

Emilio reddened. He darted a look back at the funeral home. “Magdalena Fuentes helped when you were having a hard time.”

“According to Angi she’s why I got ‘spooky’.”

“You were always spooky,” Emilio whispered. “But you’re family. Anna needs someone like you.  Please think about it.”

Rina sighed, but promised.

When Rina returned to her hotel room, Magdalena’s ghost was waiting for her. “You're far from home, Rina.”

“That’s the reoccurring theme of my life.”

“So is finding ways across improbable divides. Call your sister.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too, but Angi’s alive and I’m dead. Call.”

Rina picked up her phone and dialed.

Chernobog and Belobog by Anarh1a

Song Choice: Family is Family by Katie Musgrave

Liner Notes for this Groove: This short story was created for Art Flash 55 over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads.  The image of Life and Death in balance made me think of Rina, a character that appears in my short story collection, The Trouble with Wanting and Other Not Quite Faerie Tales. Rina has always had to live with an internal balance between the two. Sometimes that pushed her family away, and sometimes, like in this case, it helps her find her way home. More about her and her gift can be found in the the short story, "Her Homesick Spirit", in my collection. I am also linking it to Pantry of Prose, Telling Tales with Magaly Guerrero at Poets United.  

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

I Know Normal: Blogging Around with Rommy Week 13

Another blackout/ found poetry piece from the galley proof of my short story collection, 

The Trouble with Wanting, and Other Not-Quite Faerie Tales. 

To see the whole series, follow me on Instagram.

Normal is as sturdy as a paper doll

battered about in a summer rainstorm.

Sunlight shows its patched-up edges

and moonlight reveals it for what it is.

I know normal,

but it’s already scurrying away,

the way most lies do

when confronted by truth.


This poem is linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads' Tuesday Platform.

Liner Notes for this Groove:  Dostoevsky once said, “I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.” I feel that way not just about tea, but also about Philadelphia's yearly Sakura festival. Rain or shine, I'm there. The gray skies may have kept away anyone who was afraid of being rained on, but I positively enjoyed myself. The light winds kept a steady sprinkle of cherry blossoms going throughout the time I was there. And patches of fog made my mind turn to things like yokai creeping around Philly.

So dear Groovers, are there any fans of rainy or overcast days out there? Or are you a fan of something a little strange or unusual? Tell me all about it on the comments section, or feel free to catch me up on your week. The floor is yours. Also, if you want to continue the conversation in your cyberhome, be sure to include that with your comments.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Singing in the Rain/ Umbrella mashup from Glee

Light in an Eclipse

There is blood on the end of the sickle moon,
though no one but me can see it.

It's the same moon that hung
over the place I was born
grown gaunt with homesickness.

Or maybe I've just seen myself
reflected in the moon
as darkness inches across it,
engulfing it so nothing of its past remains.

The most familiar things look wrong
under a moonless sky. I recognize nothing
that looks like home.

I embrace my darkness,
but I do not let it consume me
for I have the brightness of the stars in my soul.

I let them point the way,
if not towards home,
towards a future where I shine steady
as souls wax and wane around me.

Song Choice: Away by Priscilla Hernandez


This poem is linked to the Tuesday Platform over at Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads and Poets United Poetry Pantry 421.

Perhaps you've noticed the tags this week too. I didn't plan on Rina having a large role in the Yuuki stories, but when I wrote a bit of flash fiction from the point of view of Ana's favorite aunt, people seemed to really like it and wanted to know more about her. This poem is written from the point of view of a much younger Rina, and I promise to expand on that tale very soon. 😉

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

An Excerpt from Titi Rina's Journal

Anna looks like any other little girl when she’s asleep. It’s funny how in some ways she reminds me of Angela, when she was little. There are so many ways Anna is different from mi hermanita, though energy level isn’t one of them.  I wondered if Anna would stay up all night. But she’s out like a light now.

I thought Angela and Fernando would be the hardest to convince to let her stay over. But they were so thrilled to have an evening to themselves, that it didn’t seem to matter that they normally think of me as strange, and possibly not the greatest role model for their imaginative child. Maybe this was an olive branch from Angela for the years we spent not talking to each other. 

No, it was Yuuki who had difficulty letting Anna stay by herself. I don’t know what I expected Ajani to find when I asked him to investigate the presence I felt, but realizing that Fernando has Japanese ancestors if you go back far enough, and by the way, hundreds of years ago one of them managed to trap a fox spirit into serving them, was a little bit of a shock. Oh and said fox spirit had questions about me. And my ability to protect my own niece.

So yeah, I showed off a thing or two. Magdalena would have been proud. The fox seemed satisfied enough to go with Ajani to Philly tonight, doing whatever fae in a city do.

I guess it’s fair to say I have my doubts about Yuuki too. Yeah, I believe that there's genuine affection there. But I’ve done a little research. How far can a creature known for tricks and general mischief be trusted with the welfare of a child, even when they do mean well?

Anna adores Yuki. Even her taste in cartoons shows that (tonight’s feature was Anna’s choice – some Japanese cartoon where a little girl goes into a fae world with a giant bathhouse at its center).

But does she know this world isn’t as cute as a cartoon one? And that for every Yuuki there are things that don’t care she’s only a little girl and wouldn’t hesitate to cause her harm?

Tonight between cartoons, pizza, and toenail painting I taught her some basics. How to ground, center and most importantly, shield. She took to it quickly, just another fun game for her and her crazy Tía to play. I tucked her in and reminded her to do it again before sleeping because it would help keep nightmares away. She told me she never worried about that before. Yuuki always keeps her safe. And she said she knew that I would too.

It would have been nice to have someone like that when I started seeing and feeling things. It was months before I understood what was happening to me, before I found Magdalena. And it was years before I felt competent enough to deal with it. There was no fox spirit standing at the gate for me to make sure the dead were at least polite when they tried to get my attention.

I’m looking out the window now. The usual assortment of ghosts are there, flitting around, trying to get someone to listen, and annoyed at that heavy shield I have up. I'm grown though, so they’re mostly harmless, just annoying. There’s one, a little bolder than the others, who is floating right at the edge of my shield. When she noticed me looking, she put a finger to her lips.

I don’t know if Anna has a hard time sensing the dead, the same way I have a hard time sensing fae, but I don’t feel like finding out now. I let them know that for tonight at least, I’m not taking any visitors, even the ones I do know, no matter how quiet they promise to be.

But I think I’ll check on Anna one more time before I go to sleep.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Song Choice: Dragon Boy from the Spirited Away soundtrack

This bit of flash fiction was written as a response to the picture prompt given by Magpie Tales. For previous stories about Anna and Yuuki, check here.