Carousel Seas Read Online Free Page B

think?”
    “That Management won’t be persuaded,” I said promptly. “But we’ve gotta try, Jess.”
    “Hell, yeah, we gotta try. Though I’ll tell you what, Kate—I think we need to have the park with us, if we wanna stretch the Season out from twelve weeks. People won’t just come for the ocean, ’specially once the weather turns.”
    “We’ve got other options,” I said, slowly. “There’s the new art gallery . . .”
    Jess shifted, and I held my hand up, forestalling whatever she’d been about to say.
    “No reason there can’t be more destination stores— like the art gallery. If we can offer unique shopping, that might tempt the Leaf Peepers to stop at the Beach on their way up-country or down. That means all the stores, plus the motels, and restaurants would have to be on board with staying open longer on spec, but most of them have town roots.”
    Jess gave me an odd look. “You really think we can pull this off,” she said.
    I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t you?”
    Jess took a breath, and let it out on a nod.
    “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
    “I thought so.”
    I straightened up from my lean on the rail and used my chin to point at the folded letter in her hand.
    “Take a look; see what you think. If it’s good, then let’s start getting signatures. The sooner we hear back from Management in New Jersey, the sooner we’ll know exactly what we’ve gotta do to make this thing work.”
    Jess laughed. “Keep talking like that, and I’ll step down and make you committee chair.”
    “No, ma’am!” I said with a grin. “You’re the motivator; I’m minion material.” I raised a hand. “See you later, Jess. You need me to take a shift persuading signatures out of people, let me know.”
    “I’ll be taking you up on that,” Jess said, raising her hand in turn. “Thanks, Kate.”
    * * *
    The storm gate was open when I got back to the vicinity of the carousel, and delicious smells were emanating from Tony Lee’s Chinese Kitchen. I sniffed appreciatively, but sternly turned my steps toward the carousel. Business before pleasure. Or egg rolls.
    A tall, slender figure was at the operator’s station, standing straight and easy. Vassily the greenie, that was; I recognized the hoodie, if not the stance. “Greenie” is what we call the summer temp workers the Chamber of Commerce imports from Ukraine and Russia and Poland and other countries. It comes off of “green help,” and isn’t quite accurate, because we get a fair number of greenies who come back to us, Season after Season.
    Vassily, though; he was a true greenie from Ukraine working his first Season at Archers Beach. He is, or had been, morose, and tense from carrying the baggage of a bad past and a recent tragedy. He’s devout—at least, he believes in heaven, hell, and angels, which counts as devout with me. And he’d also been touched by Prince Aesgyr, whom he believed to be an angel. Believing that, he’d opened his soul, so the prince could use him as a living gateway into the Changing Land, and have the use of Vassily’s body here, if he chose.
    In exchange for this, Prince Aesgyr, in his role as angel from heaven, had promised to redeem Vassily’s soul, and give him a free pass to heaven when he died.
    I’m not an expert on souls or redemption; I have no idea if Prince Aesgyr can come anywhere close to making good on his promises. Though, thinking about it, if any Ozali I’d ever met could, it would be Aesgyr. In any event, I suspected the point was moot, Prince Aesgyr having gotten what he came for. At the very least, though, he had given Vassily . . . peace. I’d seen it in his eyes yesterday when I’d come in for my shift, and I could see it right now, just looking at his back.
    “Morning, Vassily,” I said. “How’s it going?”
    He turned. He smiled .
    It was the smile of a man with no stain on his soul, and no doubt of his future.
    I took a careful breath. That smile made my chest hurt—quiet, deep-rooted joy