Fiction: Group 4
A sharp curse from Mama’s mouth, bitten off. Mei heard the wheels of the car screeching on the tarmac,
making high shrill
Noises that cleaved the air apart. Qin tasted ash, settling heavy in her mouth. Mama was not home, when
she should’ve been home. Mama
Swore and jerked the steering wheel sharply to one side, muttering under her breath. It was the fault of
winter time, the roads were wet and slippery
Blood was slippery. Mama looked at Qin, eyes white and over bright in the darkness, framed in the
doorway with night spilling around her body, blood spilling from her neck, life spilling from her. Mama’s
skin was wet against Qin’s hands when she caught her, a second mouth gaping open on her neck and
leaking down her shoulders.
The noise that had chased Mama inside came roaring in now, the howling, the gunfire. Mama was heavy in
her arms. The taste of death on her tongue was heavier, shots shaking the air apart, Uncle was shaking the
curtains open... Uncle was telling her to let go, Uncle was telling them they all had to go. He was herding
them out of the room, he was saying to put their hands up. Qin put her hands up, blood sliding down them.
Grandmother dozed in the front seat, bent against the dashboard. Rain ploughed into the ground in fast
silver ropes. In the distance lightning forked down and speared the encroaching hills.
In the distance houses were burning. People were screaming. Mama.
Uncle’s eyes were wild and on fire. You wanna live, girl?
In the reflection of the car window, Grandmother’s shadow was a crooked beast, a stark black shape among
bright city lights. Her head was bent, eyes unfocused, eyelids drooping. Grandmother looked like she was in
another place, another time, transported.
Mei remembered a time sitting out on the porch peeling green beans in front of their knees angled over
wooden stools, the backs of their palms wet from the moisture and Grandmother’s hands turning wetter, the
skin under her eyes glowing bright under the lamplight and her eyes busy bringing the past back to life. You
