Chester Cheshire grinwild's Arc

Chapter 11 of 15

Chester closed the black compendium and set it on the table. Three chairs full. Too many empty. Rapunzel had drifted to her feet and was edging toward her frosting shop, the chameleon riding her shoulder, her keys jingling against her hip. He could see her counting reasons to leave. He had a list of safe guests now, but a list did not fill a chair. Next to Rapunzel sat a plain white chair, straight-backed, polite, dull. Chester had set it out for the next arrival. Looking at it now, he hated it. A boring chair invited a boring guest, and boring did not take the tea. He flipped the compendium open again and ran his claw down the keep list. Halfway down a name jumped at him. A small striped bouncer from a wood with a bear in it. Loved sweets. Talked back. Could not sit still. Perfect. He crossed the square and climbed up to his house. The raven was already on the warped desk, ink dripping over the edge in slow black beads, quill upright. "Tigr," Chester said. "Phonetic. No pants. Tail like a spring." The raven dipped and wrote. Chester held the picture in his head: orange, stripes, a shirt with a name scrawled in red. The page filled. The book closed itself with a soft thump. Chester carried the book down to the table and opened it flat beside the plain white chair. He pushed his hand through the page. Something warm and loud grabbed his wrist and pulled. A small tiger tumbled out onto the cobblestones, bounced once on his tail, and landed grinning beside Rapunzel. "HI HI HI," Tigr said. "This is a vary gud square. Vary vary gud. Is that cak? I luv cak. Who are yu? Yu have lots of hare." Rapunzel stopped edging away. The chameleon flicked its tongue. Tigr looked at the plain white chair next to hers and frowned. "That chare is sad," he said. "Chares shud bounse." He poked it with one paw. Chester felt the want rise in him before he chose it. The chair shivered, folded down into itself, and sprang back up as a tight copper-and-silver coil, loops evenly spaced, a small flat seat balanced on top. Tigr leapt onto the spring and bounced. The seat sproinged. He went up, came down, went up again, laughing at the top of every arc. Rapunzel sat back down without noticing she had decided to. She watched him, then laughed, then asked how high he could go. Harrietta tapped her watch and said nothing, which for her was applause. Chester counted the chairs. Four full. He looked down the long winding table at the seats still waiting. The party was no longer drifting apart. It was pulling people in.