From the publisher: “In a futuristic society where a predatory superstate has devoured the globe and repartitioned it after the fallout of World War Three, Kumori Ando was one of the lucky citizens to get permission to move to the capital city of New Caldeonia and work at a plum if dreary office job, leaving her parents and brother in the countryside. Living alone in her standard-issue apartment on the less luxurious side of town, she has only a small statue of a cat from the old country her family fled, given to her by her elderly Aunt Suna when she was a child, to keep her company. The statue has some inexplicable supernatural power, advising her when she is in tough situations, though she doesn’t know much about her family’s history to understand what it is.
One day Kumori’s life is disrupted when her best friend disappears from work and the cat statue sends her to rescue a man sleeping in a dumpster just outside of her apartment building. His secret sends her life into a tailspin and hurls her headlong into superstate politics and the resistance group known only as the Movement. Part dystopian noir mystery, part magical girl fantasy, Kumori and the Lucky Cat is inspired by old Russian works like Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog and Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat, with a bit of Japanese kaiju meets George Orwell’s 1984 thrown in for good measure…”
“Much dystopian fiction can be heavy-handed, but Gray… employs a spare, delicate style that’s effective, whether describing an interrogation, quiet scenes, or a huge cat’s rage” – Kirkus (Kirkus Review’s 100 Best Indie Books of 2019)
About the Author: Wendelin Gray is a linguist, writer, dancer and long-time volunteer with the Silk Screen Asian Arts Organization in Pittsburgh, PA. She has also written the novella The Weary City and the novels The Vulpecula Cycle and The Haunting at Ice Pine Peak. She blogs about East Asian language and literature at http://icepinepalace.wordpress.com and https://sunrisesintheeast.wordpress.com/.
Where did the cat come from? Does it only talk to you when you are afraid?”
Belinda’s voice was skeptical, but Kumori knew she could trust her. They had worked together for two years in the same small cubicle among the never-ending rows of cubicles that made up their office. Both women joked quietly to pass the time as they stamped the official documents that passed through their hands, barely reading the pages, though only when their other co-workers weren’t around. Still, Kumori wondered why she would bring up Lucky Cat to her friend. Shouldn’t it remain her secret at a time like this? She tried to make it sound like a quirky joke from her childhood, though maybe it was too late for Belinda to believe that kind of excuse.
Belinda noticed her hesitation and smiled reassuringly.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. I thought it might be a cute story that I’d like to hear. Around this place, not many people have anything light-hearted and sweet in their life to share.” She sighed and flipped back her shoulder-length brown hair with a toss of her head. “I wish sometimes I was alive before the Reorganization, before they started planning everything and you had to get permission to come to the city or go to the country.”
Kumori smiled back at her.
“My Aunt Suna was alive back before the Reorganization. I guess she was my great aunt, really. She died when I was a little girl, but she was the one who gave me the cat statue from the country my family lived in during World War Three. I remember hearing that they were popular back in the old country years ago. Now you don’t see them.”
“They’ve probably been banned by the authorities by now. You shouldn’t let anyone see it,” Belinda said, whispering and glancing toward the aisle outside of their cubicle entrance though it was late and everyone else had gone home.
“You’re probably right,” Kumori said, thinking it was a good thing she left the little statue in her purse instead of taking it out to show her friend. “Since they banned pets, Lucky Cat is all I have to keep me company in my little apartment. I wouldn’t want to have it confiscated.”
“You need to get a boyfriend,” Belinda said, laughing before she turned serious again. “But you said it was more than just a statute to you. Did you mean it was magic?”
“I don’t know,” Kumori said. “I don’t understand the old country ways at all, and Aunt Suna died before I was old enough to talk with her about such things. My parents would never answer questions like that if Tsumori and I had them. Maybe it is magical in some way that it can make me think of it as a real friend. Even when I was a little girl, I felt comfortable asking it questions I couldn’t ask any of the adults. It does seem to know things.”
“How mysterious,” Belinda said, nodding. “You should definitely keep it secret then. That kind of help could come in handy. When was the last time you got permission to see your family and Tsumori? How long have you been in New Caledonia?”
“I tried a few times to get the authorities to give me permission to go back to visit, but they refused. It has been five years since I’ve seen them. They’re too far out in the provinces to come here, though it might be easier for them to get permission to come for a few days. I think the city authorities don’t want to lose their workers, and I had too good of grades for them to let me stay out in the countryside. I wonder if Tsumori has tried to get permission to come here. He had even better skills than I did.”
“You could talk to him on the internet and get news of your family.”
“But I’d have to go to the main office of the central authorities to use it. I guess it wouldn’t matter. It would be nice to see them and know they’re doing well. I just feel uneasy about it.”
“Did the cat tell you not to go?”
“Now you’re being mean. Do you think I ask Lucky Cat for advice on everything? I just didn’t go. Maybe I should think about it. They might be worried.”
“Well, it’s time to get out of here. I’ll see you in the morning. Do you want me to bring you breakfast?”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll probably get in a little late tomorrow.”
“See you then.”
Belinda grabbed her bag, swung it over her shoulder and walked down the corridor beside the cubicles. After a few minutes, Kumori left the office, too, turning out the lights behind her, but when she was halfway down the street leading to her apartment, she realized she forgot her keys and returned to the office.
“Drat. I’ll have to go back,” she said to herself, looking at her watch. It was already dark out because they had lingered at the office so long. She wondered if she should just go home and ask her landlord to let her in the apartment, but she decided to return to the office to get them anyway.
As the elevator doors opened on her office floor, Kumori was surprised to see how the lights were all on. She quickened her steps toward her cubicle, aware that something was wrong. She could see a few security guards milling about up ahead. They hadn’t been there when she and Belinda had left for the night. Were they near her desk? She couldn’t imagine why if they were. Her heart sinking as she neared, she realized the five men in uniform were indeed in her cubicle, and they looked at her in alarm as she approached.
“I just forgot my keys to my apartment,” she quickly explained, glancing into the cubicle from the aisle and gasping. Belinda’s desk was completely bare. Every last piece of her personal effects and her work tools were gone. The desk’s surface gleamed white and pristine under the harsh fluorescent lights. “What’s going on?” Kumori stammered.
“Are these your keys?” One of the men held out the ring of keys to her.
Kumori snatched them out of his hands without looking at them and shoved them in her pocket.
“Thanks. What’s going on here?” she asked again, her stomach flipping. “Belinda Markov sits at that desk. Did something happen to her?”
“Nah, she just got another job,” said the man dressed in a darker colored uniform than the rest, indicating he was the head of the security unit. “Nothing to worry about. When you come in tomorrow morning, you’ll have the place to yourself. Now go home and have a good evening.”
The other four men stepped in front of the cubicle entrance, blocking her sight. Kumori swallowed her retort and walked briskly down the aisle back to the elevators, pressing the button for them six times in a row in her nervousness. Glancing back at the guards, she saw them lingering in her cubicle, glancing in her direction and talking amongst themselves in low voices. The elevator doors finally opened, and she got on.
“No, it can’t be,” Kumori whispered once the doors had closed and the elevator was dropping to the ground floor. “It can’t have happened to Belinda, too. So many of them have been disappearing in the past few months. It can’t be a good thing. Something is going wrong. I’m so sorry, Belinda.”
When the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, Kumori rushed out through the lobby and the front doors into the night, desperate to get back to the safety of her apartment.
This excerpt from Kumori and the Lucky Cat is published here courtesy of the publisher and should not be reproduced without permission.
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