Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History by Ken Liu, Tananarive Due, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, Sofia Samatar, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Thoraiya Dyer Page A
Authors: Ken Liu, Tananarive Due, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, Sofia Samatar, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Thoraiya Dyer
Ads: Link
slipped between his fingers, leaving traces of her in the creases of his hands, embedded between the threads of his clothes and curled always in the coils of his hair.
It’s like my dream, I said the night of her disappearance. Water-women. A plague of them.
I need to smoke, he said, walking to the door. Come and get me in ten minutes so we can finish the ledger. Business first, right. I’ll be OK by then.
It only took two minutes to figure out that he was going out into the pitch of the night to find Carmen by the river. He had left the car, so I figured he was walking briskly south toward the bridge. Their voices would soon be screaming through his head, crowding his lonely thoughts.
Turns out there couldn’t have been a worse time for Carmen to blow in the wind. I took two steps into the street and felt a hand grab my arm: it was Fathead Leroy, a guy who took numbers for Amber over on the Southside.
Man, he said. I got rolled for my numbers slips. I don’t know that shit by heart like Amber.
Who got you? Somebody with the Jacksons?
Naw, look, you know Todd who work for Elder Mr. Hawkins? Him and a guy I never seen before. A white guy. I think he from Port Yooga. They looking for you and they looking for Amber. Told me to tell you not to burn nothing you can’t pay for. Cracker punched me and threw my betting slips into the river. I don’t got the standing to do nothing against someone as high up as Todd. You and Amber gotta get this right for us out on the streets.
I looked over Leroy’s shoulder. It started to play as a setup. Not too far in the distance I saw Todd with a big white man who stomped toward us like a gorilla. How could I leave the office without my piece? Loveblind Amber probably hadn’t spent two thoughts on packing. I dipped my head and turned from Leroy before breaking into a jog. Perhaps they ran behind me, but I wasn’t willing to spare a glance. The shadows of the Wildlands called. When I entered them, the dark grew heavy and I swore as I dashed through the stream that pieces of the dark flaked off and covered me. I came out into a clearing and could see the gleam of the moon casting down on me. This was a circuitous route to get to the Hail Mary Bridge, but it would keep me alive long enough to find Amber. I imagined him standing above the waters, waiting for Carmen to beckon him beneath the choppy surface.
The closer I got to the river, the louder the buzzing vibrating in my head. I felt as if something kept lifting me into the air with every step. It was a beautiful tone shooting from the depths. My skin grew warm, suddenly flush with blood. Part of my mind called me to turn around to save myself. Who would I be if I bowed to the gods of self-preservation when Amber was in danger? But Amber could already be a bloated corpse, the beasts of the river tearing at his dead limbs. What a liar I am. This death march felt good, that was the truth. That’s why I plowed deeper into the forest. It felt just like floating on my back beneath the sun in an ocean that rocked with a loping rhythm. All that remained was for me to dip my head under.
While I indulged this daydream as one of the last I’d ever have, I came out of a long blink and before me stood Amber with his ankles steeped in the river.
That’s when the whispers began. Images of Loretta. My Loretta. Then the water-woman Loretta.
I wanted to call out to Amber, but what if I missed my Loretta speaking to me?
A burst. A loud popping, like fireworks. I looked to the cloudy black of the sky, now hiding the stars and obscuring the moon. Another pop, or rather this time it was a bang, closer to me now. I wasn’t shot, but for a second I thought I was as the rhythm of the bang vibrated first at my feet and then in my chest.
Amber didn’t move. Didn’t react at all as if he hadn’t heard the sound. He just stared down at the river, trying to see the whole world in the water.
Another shot burst toward us, this time from a
It’s like my dream, I said the night of her disappearance. Water-women. A plague of them.
I need to smoke, he said, walking to the door. Come and get me in ten minutes so we can finish the ledger. Business first, right. I’ll be OK by then.
It only took two minutes to figure out that he was going out into the pitch of the night to find Carmen by the river. He had left the car, so I figured he was walking briskly south toward the bridge. Their voices would soon be screaming through his head, crowding his lonely thoughts.
Turns out there couldn’t have been a worse time for Carmen to blow in the wind. I took two steps into the street and felt a hand grab my arm: it was Fathead Leroy, a guy who took numbers for Amber over on the Southside.
Man, he said. I got rolled for my numbers slips. I don’t know that shit by heart like Amber.
Who got you? Somebody with the Jacksons?
Naw, look, you know Todd who work for Elder Mr. Hawkins? Him and a guy I never seen before. A white guy. I think he from Port Yooga. They looking for you and they looking for Amber. Told me to tell you not to burn nothing you can’t pay for. Cracker punched me and threw my betting slips into the river. I don’t got the standing to do nothing against someone as high up as Todd. You and Amber gotta get this right for us out on the streets.
I looked over Leroy’s shoulder. It started to play as a setup. Not too far in the distance I saw Todd with a big white man who stomped toward us like a gorilla. How could I leave the office without my piece? Loveblind Amber probably hadn’t spent two thoughts on packing. I dipped my head and turned from Leroy before breaking into a jog. Perhaps they ran behind me, but I wasn’t willing to spare a glance. The shadows of the Wildlands called. When I entered them, the dark grew heavy and I swore as I dashed through the stream that pieces of the dark flaked off and covered me. I came out into a clearing and could see the gleam of the moon casting down on me. This was a circuitous route to get to the Hail Mary Bridge, but it would keep me alive long enough to find Amber. I imagined him standing above the waters, waiting for Carmen to beckon him beneath the choppy surface.
The closer I got to the river, the louder the buzzing vibrating in my head. I felt as if something kept lifting me into the air with every step. It was a beautiful tone shooting from the depths. My skin grew warm, suddenly flush with blood. Part of my mind called me to turn around to save myself. Who would I be if I bowed to the gods of self-preservation when Amber was in danger? But Amber could already be a bloated corpse, the beasts of the river tearing at his dead limbs. What a liar I am. This death march felt good, that was the truth. That’s why I plowed deeper into the forest. It felt just like floating on my back beneath the sun in an ocean that rocked with a loping rhythm. All that remained was for me to dip my head under.
While I indulged this daydream as one of the last I’d ever have, I came out of a long blink and before me stood Amber with his ankles steeped in the river.
That’s when the whispers began. Images of Loretta. My Loretta. Then the water-woman Loretta.
I wanted to call out to Amber, but what if I missed my Loretta speaking to me?
A burst. A loud popping, like fireworks. I looked to the cloudy black of the sky, now hiding the stars and obscuring the moon. Another pop, or rather this time it was a bang, closer to me now. I wasn’t shot, but for a second I thought I was as the rhythm of the bang vibrated first at my feet and then in my chest.
Amber didn’t move. Didn’t react at all as if he hadn’t heard the sound. He just stared down at the river, trying to see the whole world in the water.
Another shot burst toward us, this time from a
Similar Books
