Beyond All War by Eric Keller

Author:Eric Keller [Keller, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781684333097
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Published: 2019-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

. . .

Morreign wrapped her sweater tight as she sat on her chair in the night air. Bright, clear stars filled the sky. She always tried not to think back to the times she came here as a teenager, before the Bombs, the memories of her parents and brothers always hurt too much. But, tonight, looking over the wide expanse of the Clearing, she could not stop remembering.

She thought of her dad grilling burgers. She thought of her mother calling them in from the river for bedtime. She thought of running through the tall grass with no destination. She thought of the endless games of lawn bowling with her brothers. Everything was so simple, so easy, the biggest worry was running out of soda or forgetting to pack an extra swimsuit.

A gust of wind blew across the porch, cool in the night air, bringing Morreign back to the reality that all of those people and that simple world were completely gone. Now, sitting in the darkness, she needed to grapple with having lost three young people.

Survival after the Bombs had always been hard, but Morreign thought they had managed, through intense labor and persistence and good luck, to carve out a bastion of civilization where they could be relatively safe. They had shelter. They had gardens. They had firewood. Now, being reminded that, despite all those earned accomplishments, they existed in a world of complete uncertainty, made it seem far too hard. Fatigue, guilt, and despair all pushed in on her.

Morreign unconsciously muttered angrily into the summer breeze, “It’s not fair.”

Hearing the basic statement coming from her own mouth surprised her. The clearest memory of her mother was on an early morning at their home in Edmonton. Morreign, twelve years old, maybe eleven, wanting to go somewhere with her friends, she couldn’t recall where, but her mom refused. When Morreign whined about it not being fair, her mother laughed, which only made pre-teen Morreign more angry and whiny.

She could still picture the scene perfectly. Sun coming in through the dusty kitchen window. Her mother in her canary yellow dress, turning from the sink, wiping her hands on the faded dish towel with the strawberries on it. Morreign, sitting on the counter in her usual spot, her coltish legs tucked under her, covered in the bruises and scratches of summer. Her mom looked straight at her, her serious gaze cutting off her childish complaints before she calmly said, “The sooner you realize there’s no magical force in this world making everything fair for everyone, the better off you’ll be.”

A cough. Then another. The sound carrying through the crisp night air, across the Clearing from a cabin to the West, distracting Morreign.

The cough was probably from Boris. He had been dealing with a nasty chest cold for weeks now. Morreign forced her aching hip to bend and got up off the chair. Limping back to her bed, she made a mental note to bring Boris the last of the honey to add to his tea.

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