When Last the Cicadas Sang
“Let’s go listen for cicadas,” Ansibel said. The eight-year-old picked at a big book of insects with grubby fingernails. “They should come out soon.” Kara stood, stretching her old back. Weeding the garden next to her farmhouse had always been a way to relax after a long day, but it got harder and harder every […]
Exhibit E
People first noticed it had changed on the turn of the full moon in October. For the many who looked up at night, the moon appeared different somehow, but they could not put their finger on what had changed. Like a patient looking at an X-ray, the shading looked wrong, but they couldn’t describe how […]
Urgent Care
Nelli Song sniffled as she entered the low-gravity waiting room. The room was filled with various species from the Orion Arm, most of them related to the Hant Collective, three-headed beings who talked with their feet. She shuffled towards the window. Her hair was in a bun and she wore grey sweatpants, a college sweatshirt, […]
The Wolf Boys of Wide River County
New year, new rations, same drought. The Wide River still a dust bowl between the public house and homes to the south, the farms beyond. Despite the heat, people trickled in to pick up their water—even the outsiders, the temp workers here for the new development. They needed to drink too, I supposed. The mayor […]
Choose Your Battleground
The first time I tried to regreen our town, I was sixteen. I got sentenced to 150 hours of community service, which Trev told the judge was ironic, seeing as we’d been trying to do the community a service in the first place, and it had only taken us a fraction of that. Trev got […]
Little Goats
Old Man Proteus thought that land was overrated, yet he crawled out onto the shore, shook off the brine, and changed into his old-man form because land was where his business lay. He wasn’t very fond of the sameness of things that he passed by: people seemed drawn to the concept of uniformity and celebrated […]
Power to the People
Sarah stepped over the low front hedge and scuttled her way across the lawn until her shadow fell forward across the white gravel lining the side of Melissa’s house. Further down, in the shadows cast by the fence, she could hear the scrunching of feet on the stones and the occasional metallic thunk. The contents […]
Stories and Second Chances
Rithika’s home was now two-storeyed, but Baba lived there alone most of the time, ever since she had moved out because of her job. She wished that she could spend more time with her father, in their home. She knew how lonely Baba was, even though he always encouraged her to go and pursue her […]
For Those Who Would Come After
The problem with Stella’s dad had never been his stubbornness, even if that was why her mom divorced him. No, his problem had been entirely Newtonian: if anyone pushed him to get with the times, he had an equal and opposite reaction. When Stella’s mom and brothers told him to upgrade the farm to be […]
Green-Up on Aisle 13
A wave of pollution rolled into the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I held my breath, fighting the urge to cough against the caustic air. A bundled-up man pushed through the doors, bringing with him the reek of petrol and a bluster of cold from the arctic temperatures outside. I leapt to attention behind the counter, […]
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