Аннали Ньюиц: #Selfcare

“Same,” said Ms. Desai. “We can always go to Nature’s Blessing in the Marina.”

Edwina made sure she’d sprayed every fleck of ordure off the windows before returning inside to start the shutdown routine. Daisy was still banging around in back, so she walked to the garden suite to check on her. Daisy was kneeling next to the orchid display, carefully emptying several tiny trash containers into a scented plastic bag. She looked sweaty and her ringlets had wilted.

“Hey, I’m going to start closing up. Are you almost done?”

Daisy looked up, and Edwina braced herself for rage. Instead, her colleague’s face was streaked with tears. “I’m done.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Are you okay?”

Daisy shook what remained of her curls. “Of course I’m not okay. Mrs. Landsdale is one of my best clients. I’ve gotten a ton of referrals from her.”

Edwina flashed on the conversation she’d just overheard between Mrs. Landsdale and Ms. Desai, and felt an unfamiliar flare of sympathy for Daisy. Clinicians worked for those bonuses, and Skin Seraph wasn’t a just day job for Daisy. It was her career.

“I bet she’ll forget about it tomorrow when she tries that elixir,” Edwina said with forced cheerfulness.

Daisy shook her head. “I hope so. That wasn’t some free sample. I gave her the good shit.”

“I dunno. I think I’m the true judge of good shit now.” Edwina cracked a grin and Daisy let out a laugh-sob noise that turned into a genuine laugh. It was the first time Edwina had ever seen her without absolutely perfect makeup and structured hair.

Daisy slung the bag of trash over her shoulder and cocked her head at Edwina. “Do you want to drink some of those CBD coolers that Isobel and Brad left in the fridge?” she asked. “I really need to relax.” Isobel and her boyfriend Brad, whom she’d hired as some kind of nebulous marketing manager, always kept drinks on hand for pop-up influencer parties.

Edwina blinked up her chat with Alyx, which had mostly degenerated into poop emoji. “Can I invite my friend Alyx? I told them to meet me after work.”

“The more the merrier.”

The three of them sat on massage chairs in the restoration room, drinking and watching Fae Killer memes on YouTube. That’s when Edwina remembered the security camera footage. She had two witnesses now, and wanted to see what they thought.

She and Daisy swiped through Skin Seraph’s dashboard lazily, digging into several maintenance menus before they found the security cam file. It was set to delete anything older than a week, so her first encounter with the woman was gone. But this afternoon’s encounter was there. They watched the scene unfold with mouths open. The webcam was positioned over the door, which meant most of the action at the windows happened at the edge of the video. Still, they could zoom in to see a person touching the windows, face averted, her movements a jerky blur.

“Is this in fast motion or something?” Alyx asked. “It looks weird.”

Daisy fiddled with the controls and brought up the timestamp. “Nope,” she said. “She’s just moving really fast.”

And then they came to the part where the woman winked out. It happened on film just the way it had in real life: she was there and then not there. Except now it was easier to blame on bad video than it had been when the actual scene was streaming into her eyes.

“There must be something wrong with the webcam,” Daisy said uncertainly.

“Yeah it’s glitchy,” Alyx agreed. They chugged more CBD cooler, and looked over at Edwina. “Right? It’s glitchy.”

Edwina debated whether to agree with them or come out and say it. She took another swig of CBD, looked at Alyx’s lean face with their jet-black eyes, and Daisy’s pale, de-sparkled cheeks. “That’s actually what I saw too. She moved really fast and then she disappeared. Daisy, remember how last week I said I thought I saw a woman breaking the window? It’s the same one. She disappeared then too.”

Daisy set her bottle down carefully. “So, what is this? Some kind of… fae?”

None of them laughed.

Alyx pulled their mobile out of a back pocket and unfolded it on the table between them. “So obviously fae aren’t real,” they said. “But it could be somebody in a costume fucking around with the camera, right? Let’s see if there are other reports like this on Nextdoor. People freaking love to report vandalism there. There’s also a feed from San Francisco city government where people submit cleanup requests.” Alyx already had six feeds going on the mobile.

“You don’t think fae are real?” Daisy asked, using the very serious voice she usually reserved for talking to customers about gold flake masks.

Edwina and Alyx glanced at each other and then at Daisy. “I mean, I love Fae Killers , but that’s not real life,” Edwina said.

“Well, no, that’s not real life,” Daisy agreed. “But there are definitely fae here in San Francisco.”

Edwina’s heart sank. She was just starting to like Daisy, and now she felt herself withdrawing. It wasn’t as if she was some kind of douchey skeptic who hated all people with New Age beliefs, but it was going to be hard to solve this mystery if Daisy blamed it on ancient aliens.

Alyx broke through Edwina’s disappointment spiral. “What do you mean when you say there are fae here in the city?” they asked.

Daisy shrugged. “Don’t you run socials for brands? You must have seen Fae Twitter. A lot of companies hire fae consultants now to help them with outreach because dreamwalking is a great way to raise brand awareness.”

“I’ve heard of that, but I thought it was like hiring astrologers or something.” Alyx looked nonplussed.

Something about Edwina’s expression and Alyx’s tone had gotten through to Daisy. She dropped her eyes and picked at one of her nails. “I guess it’s like that. Some people believe fae are real, though.” Daisy laughed nervously. “It’s probably like those magicians in Vegas who turn people into giant pigs, but then it turns out to be a hologram, right?”

“Wait, did that happen? A magician turned somebody into a holographic pig?” Edwina was eager to change the subject. “I’m looking that up on YouTube right now.”

After she found it, they spent another hour clicking on even more bizarre magician videos. Then it was time to head home. Daisy hopped in a rideshare while Alyx and Edwina walked down the hill to catch BART.

At the West Oakland stop, Alyx hugged Edwina goodnight, but kept a warm hand on her arm as they separated. “I’ll use some of the algorithms we have at work to look for reports on that shit-smearing lady, okay? I bet somebody has reported her, and then at least you’ll know more.”

Edwina nodded. “Thanks. I’m still stuck in this weird energy from what Daisy said about the fae.”

“Social media people have a zillion superstitions,” Alyx laughed. “Gotta pray to the mushroom people if you wanna go viral, man.”

“I guess so.” Edwina managed a smile, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the skinless woman who had shattered and unshattered a window. Like she was casting a spell. Edwina glanced up at Jupiter, still burning brightly overhead, and remembered how the collagen had glistened in the woman’s cheeks as she said hello. Maybe it wasn’t a spell. Maybe it was a curse.

The next day at work was a lot more fun than usual because Edwina finally had an office friend. Now she and Daisy could roll their eyes at each other when there was a particularly rude client, and she had somebody to grab a turmeric latte with at Martha & Brothers up the street. Daisy snuck a look at her socials as they waited in the coffee queue behind three women with four Babyfren carriages between them.