No Chance

"Gallo! You're back!" Lily came bounding out of the balcony kitchen like a cheerful little lark, a dusting of flour still on her hands.

She excitedly led Gallo to the corrugated cardboard box holding the doll-making materials, then proudly produced a smaller box from beside it.

She carefully opened it. Nine palm-sized cloth dolls lay neatly inside. Some wore blue checkered dresses, others had flaxen braids, and even their stitched eyes had different curves. They were clearly the fruits of the two women's hard work over the past few days.

"These are the nine prettiest ones Mom and I made. Could you... could you take them out and sell them?" Lily asked hopefully.

They'd put special care into every doll they'd made over the past few days, determined not to ruin a single one. They'd set aside the two allowed rejects from each batch, and these nine were the best of the lot.

"Even if we can't get a whole Copper Nil for each one, if we sell them for four Fenso apiece, that'll come to seven Copper Nils and two Fenso. That's enough to buy more than two pounds of meat!"

Lily counted on her fingers, carefully working out the sums.

Gallo picked up a doll and brushed his fingertips over its fine stitches. He inspected the dolls closely. The stitching was neater and more even than before, and their features looked more lifelike with every attempt.

"You've done a wonderful job, Lily! You're getting better and better at this," he praised her sincerely.

He crouched down and ruffled Lily's hair. "I'll take them to Lubo Lane tomorrow. The university students might like these cloth dolls. I'll try to get a Copper Nil for each one, and maybe even a Fenso more if I can."

Lily cheered at once, hoping the dolls would be snapped up by customers as soon as Gallo took them out tomorrow.

Gallo walked to the edge of the bed and took a new bottle of cough medicine from his pocket. The medicine was a light brown liquid in a glass bottle, and it looked clearer than the medicine he'd brought last time.

"Mom, this medicine is different from the last one. Don't dilute it with water. The pharmacist said that drinking it diluted would make it less effective and ruin its medicinal properties. But this one works better than the previous bottle, and it can also help with the weakness after you've been ill."

He unscrewed the cap, poured four spoonfuls of medicine into a small cup, and held it out to Aisha. "Your cough has eased a little over the past two days, but you need to take the full dose to recover completely."

Aisha looked at the medicine her son had brought, then at his collar, which was still neat despite a little dust. Her eyes reddened slightly.

She took the cup and drank it down in one go. The bitter taste made her frown, but she still asked softly, "Has work been tiring?"

"Not at all. I've sold quite a few books, too. The shop owner recently gave me a bonus." Gallo smiled as he placed the bottle on the bedside table, then carefully tucked in the edge of Aisha's blanket.

"Tomorrow I'll take the dolls to the bookstore to sell, then buy some fresh fruit on the way back."

He turned to Lily and asked, "I noticed you've got flour on your hands. What are you planning to make tonight?"

"Fried meat pies! You can take a few to eat at work tomorrow."

"Good thing I bought some fresh meat, too. I'll mince it, and we can make plenty of meat pies."

Early the next morning, Gallo carried a cardboard box containing nine cloth dolls and tucked two oil-paper-wrapped fried meat pies against his chest.

He arrived on Lubo Lane a few minutes earlier than usual. On the previous few days, he'd always arrived just in time to hear the morning chimes from the Clock Tower.

When the Moonlight Cafe's waitress saw him, she smiled and brought over a hot coffee with milk and sugar, placing it on the table where Gallo usually sat.

Unlike usual, there was also a vase of fresh flowers on the table, its bright colors drawing the eye.

"Mr. Gallo, you're early today."

Since Gallo worked at their cafe, business had been especially good lately. More customers also meant more tips for the staff.

So all three employees at the cafe were very warm toward Gallo, whose work had helped increase their earnings.

"Thanks."

Gallo set the cardboard box of cloth dolls at the corner of the table, then took out four and went into the cafe to give one to each of the three waitresses and the female owner.

He could make up the cost of those four dolls with his own money. By now, Gallo had earned more than six Nalang in total.

He'd stored all of it in a box beneath his bed, where he kept his clothes. Once he'd saved about ten Nalang, he'd take the time to deposit it all in a bank and open an account in his own name.

After receiving their thanks and hearing how much they liked the finely made dolls, Gallo returned to his seat. He set up the sign introducing his "Knowledge Navigation" service and waited for customers to arrive.

As soon as Gallo settled in at his workstation, new book lists and shelf-location lists began arriving from the bookstores along the lane. He'd arranged this with them the day before, saving himself a great deal of time by making it unnecessary to visit each shop one by one.

It also helped bring business to all the bookstores.

When the Clock Tower's chimes rang out across the area, his first customer soon arrived.

The first customer was an Engineering Department student looking for information on "steam pipe seal inspection." Gallo promptly named three bookstores and gave their shelf locations, and the student happily paid him two Fenso.

The second was a young woman from the History Department looking for sailing logs from the Southern Continent's colonial era. Gallo not only pointed her to the books, but also explained the key points in one of them, earning another Copper Nil.

Soon, customers were streaming into the cafe again. Whenever Gallo had been working for less than ten minutes, all the cafe staff would be busy along with him.

At ten in the morning, it was time for his break. After helping his last customer before ten, he rubbed his aching temples and prepared to close his eyes and rest.

"Gallo! I've got something important to tell you!" Stur rushed over, panting, his face alight with barely contained excitement. He dropped into the chair across from Gallo.

"I ran into Sacia Taylor at the library yesterday. She's one of the most famous girls at school!"

Gallo picked up his coffee and took a sip, waiting for him to continue.

Stur said excitedly, "She asked to borrow my notes for The Charm of Industrial Computing, and we talked for over an hour.

"You have no idea—when she smiles, her eyes are like sapphires. And she speaks so gently. I think... I think she likes me!"

Gallo looked at him, puzzled. "So a girl at your school likes you, and you couldn't wait to come tell me about it?

"Why?"

Even though the two of them were on good terms, Stur had never seemed so eager to share something with him.

"Uh... When I was talking with her yesterday, she was really impressed with how I'd recorded everything in my notes. Then I happened to mention you," Stur explained.

"You mentioned me?"

Stur leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Miss Sacia is really interested in you. She's even heard about what you've been doing on Lubo Lane. But so many people have been coming to see you lately that she thought it'd be best if she could get a chance to talk to you alone."

Gallo smiled at Stur. "So you agreed on my behalf, right? And are you really sure Miss Sacia is interested in you?"

"What's the problem?" Stur asked, still not understanding.

Gallo went on, "Is Miss Sacia also in the Engineering Department?"

"No, she's in the History Department."

So a girl from the History Department had asked an Engineering Department student to lend her notes on an engineering book, and he'd completely missed the point.

Gallo didn't say anything more. He set down his coffee cup and used a charcoal pencil he kept with him to write a new line at the bottom of the sign.

"Fortune-telling service: Predicting the probability of events. Pay whatever you like."

"Want to try my new service?" He took the oily, blackened coin from his pocket.

"I'll tell you whether you and Sacia Taylor have any chance of getting together. Pay whatever you think is fair."

Stur froze for a moment. Looking at the "ordinary" one-Fenso coin in Gallo's hand, he asked, "You're going to tell the future by flipping a coin?

"Isn't it always a fifty-fifty chance in that case?"

"But my predictions are always accurate!"

Gallo flicked the coin with his fingertip. It arced through the air and landed tails-up on the back of his hand.

"The result is that there's no chance at all between you and Miss Sacia," Gallo said calmly.

Stur's smile froze on his face.