I couldn’t help but be amazed. “I didn’t realize you were so into inventing stuff!”
I’d only just learned my fellow Parsippany sixth grader was from the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers, and also a rakkhoshi. But somehow, the idea that she was so into science seemed just as surprising. I’d always thought of Naya as good-hearted but kind of ding-batty. I mean, she was addicted to her cell phone, was always posting pictures on social media, and had even been a part of the flying fangirls group that crushed on Neel and called themselves the Neelkamalas.
“Why did you think I was so into cell phones?” Naya fixed one of the many ponytails on her head, adding, “Just because someone likes glitter lip gloss and selfie filters doesn’t mean they’re not scientifically minded.”
“Now that you’ve cleared all that up,” Mati interrupted, handing me a tiny lizard with a slithery tongue, “meet Tiktiki One.”
I tried not to shudder as the clammy animal scampered onto my hand, fixing its swively eyes on me. “Tiktiki? Isn’t that just the Bengali word for ‘gecko’? Doesn’t it have an actual name?”
Mati and Naya both gave me weird looks. Finally, Naya lowered her voice, like she didn’t want to hurt the animal’s feelings. “Your Highnosity, this is a lizard. Lizards don’t actually have names.”
I rolled my eyes, trying really hard not to freak out at the slimy feeling of Tiktiki One now walking up my arm. “All right, so how does this work?”
“Easy,” Naya said. “Just whisper to Tiktiki One any message you want to send, and then pull off its tail. It’ll scamper off probably for some peace while it transmits, but eventually, we’ll get the message through one of the geckos we’ll have with us.”
“Pull off its tail!” I exclaimed, staring at the slimy thing with its greenish skin, buggy eyes, and rubbery tail. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Every cellular communication device needs a send button!” Naya explained, as if pulling off a gecko’s tail was no big deal. “And these are special tiktikis! Their tails grow right back! Oh, and don’t worry if it takes a while for it to return; these geckos sometimes like to go on walkabout.”
The lizard on my arm gave me a doubtful look, then it flicked out its tongue and slithered from my arm down to the back of the auto rikshaw driver’s bench. Great. Not only did my parents refuse to get me a real cell phone, now I’d have to use a slithery lizard with a fast-regrowing tail. This was way worse than even a flip phone.
“Good luck, Kiran.” Ignoring everyone around us, Neel grabbed my hand. “Come back with my brother as soon as you can. Don’t leave me stuck as the Raja for too long.”
“I’ll try,” I promised, super self-conscious of my hot and kinda sweaty hand in his. I was also really embarrassed about all the eyes on us. But still, it felt good to have this small moment of connection.
Naya and Mati each gave me a hug, and then Naya, snifflingly, insisted we all take a selfie together. Neel, Mati, Naya, Tuni, and I posed, and Naya chose a silly special effect that made us all look like we were unicorns with rainbows coming out of our noses and eyeballs.
“That is not cute!” I’d said, even though I was laughing.
“Yeah it is,” Neel had replied, his eyes locking with mine. I felt something melt in my chest even as somewhere to the side of me, Priya started making way-too-obvious coughing noises. Mati and Naya exchanged a silly look and I tried to ignore all of them. My cheeks felt hot, but I couldn’t help grinning a little too.
Neel gave me one last searching glance. “Hey, thanks for saving my life back there in the detention center. I owe you one.”
Finally! The words I’d been wanting to hear for so long. My stomach was doing flip-flops of joy. Neel hadn’t forgotten what I’d done for him after all. And somehow, that recognition felt so much more powerful a reward than any party or magical weapon or castle full of jewels.
I felt a smile spreading slowly over my face. “You know you do!”
“Good luck, Moon Girl,” Neel said in a voice meant only for me.
I gave Neel an awkward grin. “Thanks, Demon Prince. Have fun storming the palace!”
And then the PSS helped Neel climb on the back of an elephant with a regal howdah on his back. Neel had sat on the fancy throne, waving and giving me thumbs-up signs. Naya had blown kisses upon kisses. Finally, the elephant gave a long trumpet, and they were all gone, leaving Tuni and me to find my moon mother alone.
In the beginning of our search, I’d started out hopeful. “Um, Mother?” I’d called, keeping an eye on the sky. “It’s Kiranmala. Can you hear me?”
Tuni, for his part, flapped around and sang a song I’d heard Ma sing. “O, aaa-maar chander alo!” he called. “Oh, my moonlight!”
Soon, when it was obvious my moon mother wasn’t answering anytime soon, I started to get pretty annoyed. Why was my birth mother ignoring me when I needed her? Why couldn’t she be around, trying to feed me and asking me nosy questions, like a normal mom?
I drove the auto rikshaw super slowly, trying not to freak out at the tiktiki sleeping right by my shoulder. We were far from the beach, and I was just driving through a patch of forest outside a village, when I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. I thought for a minute it was a big orange moon heading right for us. Only, it wasn’t actually a moon. Oh no! I swerved, but it was a little too late. The giant rolling gourd kept bouncing along the forest path, picking up speed as it did, on a direct collision course with the auto rikshaw!
I tried to reverse but instead bounced over a gnarled root in the road. “Ahhh!” I yelled, sure we were done for. My head slammed into the top of the auto as we went full-on airborne.
“We’re gonna be baked into a Halloween pie!” Tuntuni shrieked.
“Watch out!” I yelled, trying to control us as we headed directly for Cinderella’s pumpkin.
“Every bird for himself!” Tuni flew up out of the rikshaw at the last minute.
Tiktiki One, for its part, woke up, made a weird little clickety-clack noise, and then jumped with its clammy feet onto my head! Ewww!
The auto rikshaw hit the giant pumpkin at an angle, and as soon as we made contact, the gourd exploded, shell cracking in a zillion pieces and orange goo flying out. The windshield was covered in orange slime, and I could see nothing. I slammed on the brakes, and the machine stalled with a dramatic shudder. “Suffering succotash!” I yelled for who knows what reason, before grabbing Tiktiki One from my head and yanking the animal off.
Once I turned on the windshield wipers to clear a little of the windshield, I was shocked to realize that other than the orange stringy insides of the vegetable, something else had flown out of the gourd too. Or rather, someone. On the road in front of me, just inches from the auto rikshaw’s wheels, had fallen an ancient woman as wrinkled as an old leather shoe.
“Oh, no, no, no! The tiger will for sure get me now!” wheezed the old lady, clutching the end of her white sari around her head.
I rushed out to help the woman. “Are you all right, Grandmother?” I helped her get unsteadily to her feet. She was tiny, and frail, with skin like paper and bony hands that I was afraid to squeeze too hard for fear of hurting them. I peered at her, wondering if she was my moon mother in disguise or something, but the next thing she said made me think that couldn’t be true.