Fiction: Group 4
itself together and oozed up her throat, it pried her mouth open...
Jie’s fingers were so tight against Qin’s fingers they hurt her. Jie wouldn’t let her stand there, tugged her
forward in a sharp jerky movement and pulled her up when Qin almost tripped into the water.
More words knocked around in Qin’s mouth, smooth and wild pebbles. She said, Lan...
Jie’s mouth opened, she kept looking forward. She said, Why’re you using my first name all of a sudden?
What’s wrong with Jie? You older than me now or something? She said, We’ll fix everything together.
We will rebuild. Will.
Mei’s shiny shoes squeaked against the floorboards following in Mama’s footsteps, trying to walk just that
much faster to match her small strides to Mama’s long ones, hurrying up. Grandma frowned. Remember
your daughter. You’re walking too fast for Lan.
What? Who?
What?
Mei tugged on Grandma’s coat sleeves. That’s not my name, Grandma.
Grandma blinked once, twice, slowly, deliberately, reminding Mei stronger than ever of the tortoises they
watched documentaries of in school, those old and crusted animals, carrying their thick and enormous shells,
taking an age to drop their eyelids down and lift them back up again, a time the lifespan of continents. To
Mei everyone was old and old, but Grandma, nearly eighty, was
old
old. Ancient. A whole new species of
personhood.
Did I say Lan?
Yes, Grandma.
Mama turned around with a sharp look, then paused in place and turned back again, she had a strange
expression on—she turned back around.
Bie luo suo le
. No more fussing around, let’s go.
In the car Mei fell asleep, sliding down her seat and propped up against the door. She fell asleep to the sound
of crickets, and there were
Rumours of soldiers marching towards their village but most people didn’t believe it. They couldn’t see why
soldiers would be bothered with their small village when they’d never been before, and that was in the way
of rumours, and fear mongering. Besides, if ever the soldiers did come they would likely be warned: scouts
would tell them if the rumours were true and when
From her nap Mei woke up—
Qin woke up, and the sky was on fire.
Flames ate the world alive, there was screaming, there was
