Page 68 of Aru Shah and the End of Time

“Ready,” said Mini. She stayed hunched over the smoke.

“Hey! Ek and Do!” shouted Aru.

She looked at the glowing orb in her hand. She rolled it between her palms, wishing it weren’t so tiny. As she thought about it, it actually changed. It grew to the size of a tennis ball.

Do cocked his head. One fat pink tongue lolled out the side of his mouth.

“No!” growled Ek. “It’s a trap!”

“IT’S A BALL!”

Aru threw the ball as hard as she could. Do bounded off after it.

Ek stayed put. “If you think that a ball—”

Mini let go of her enchantment. A sleek purple cat leaped out of her arms and away into the darkness. Ek’s eyes turned huge. His tail started wagging, and the darkness began to vibrate around them. The crack of light just behind him widened.

“WOOOOOOO!!!” he shouted, taking off after the cat.

“Good boy!” said Aru.

Mini and Aru took off toward the slender doorway of light. As Aru’s pumping legs churned the darkness beneath her, the only thing on her mind was this:

Maybe she should ask her mother about getting a cat instead of a dog.

Soul Index

With the dogs’ howling cut off behind them, Aru and Mini went from utter darkness to blinding light. Aru squinted around, trying to get her bearings.

When her eyes finally adjusted, she saw that they were standing in a line. One glance around immediately told her they’d come to the right place. These people were definitelynotalive.

One person was on fire. He yawned and went back to poking at the inside of a toaster with a fork with a very sheepish expression on his face. Then there was a very sunburned-looking couple in hiking gear sporting some nasty bruises and scratches. And beside Aru, moving quickly and calmly, was a bald girl in a hospital gown clutching a silk rabbit. Everyone was packed tightly together, and the crowd kept growing. Before her, she could just make out the letters of a hanging office sign that said:

KARMA & SINS

Est. at the first hiccup of time

Please, no solicitors

(As of the 15th century, indulgences are no longer permitted. Nice try.)

There was a lot of murmuring around them.

“I can’t understand what anyone is saying,” said Mini.

Aru caught fragments of words. It didn’t sound like English. “Mini, do you speak any Hindi?”

“I can ask for money and say I’m hungry?” said Mini.

“Wow. So useful.”

“Itwasuseful!” said Mini. “When I went to India and had to meet all my mom’s relatives, those were the only two phrases I needed.”

“They never taught you more?”

“Nope,” said Mini. “My parents didn’t want me and my brother to get confused in school, so they only spoke English. And my lola got mad when my mom tried to teach me Hindi, because my name was already Indian and she thought my mom was trying to make me forget I was Filipina too, and it became this huge fight at home. I don’t remember it, because I was little. My mom tells it one way, my lola tells it another. Ugh.” She took a deep breath, and then brightened. “I do know some curse words in Tagalog, though! They’re really awful, like this one—”

But before Aru could hear what Mini was going to say, a large speaker materialized in the air, shouting, “NEXT!”