The River and the World Remade by E. Lily Yu

Author:E. Lily Yu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

* * *

“You’ve had a bitter time,” the doctor said. “But your fever’s down.”

The room was whitewashed mud brick, clean and dim. I was lying on a pallet of wool and shredded plastic, which crackled as a I shifted. The sound of rain on the roof was sweet.

She tipped me a cup of water, and I drank, tasting mud.

“Sheckie—”

"The boy’s fine. He’s sleeping now.”

I sighed the longest sigh of my life and closed my eyes, and then I was too.

* * *

The Land had electricity, and at night all kinds of insects bobbed and danced about the lightbulbs set outside. We sat under one, slapping mosquitos, looking at the dark shape of the River.

“You’re not going to apologize, are you,” I said. “For stealing the raft. For fooling almost to my death and yours.”

“Do you want me to?” Sheckie said.

I grunted, noncommittal.

“Isn’t this better than the River?” he said. “They have so much! Even some running trains, they said, on the tracks that aren’t underwater. And I saw a house made out of an old plane!”

I grunted.

“Not as good as your houses,” he allowed. “And their shoes aren’t better than mine.”

“Soft,” I said. “Land makes you soft.”

“Maybe.”

“But if that’s what you want,” I said. “They surely need you.”

“You’ll be making a raft soon as you can,” Sheckie said, “won’t you. Oramon will be worried.”

“I’ll be making a new raft.”

“It’s just that, wood on the Land is scarce, and they have to leave every living tree standing. You can only take what washes up.”

“Is that so,” I said.

“It’ll take a long time, I expect,” he said. “Weeks. Months. Maybe years.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“So I expect you’re stuck with me,” Sheckie said. “For a while.”

“For a while, sure,” I said.

“They’re making you a crown,” he said. “With copper wire. I heard. That’s the most valuable thing you can get, on the Land.”

“That’ll be good for the raft,” I said. “Rope’s also good.”

“They said most people wouldn’t go out in a storm like that. For anyone.”

“Now that,” I said, flattening a bloody mosquito on my arm, “is a load of nonsense. Anyone on the River would.”

“But that’s the River.”

“That’s the River.”

There was a silence.

“I’ll come back,” he said. “Someday. You’ll see.”

I said, “I know.”

All around us the fireflies flickered their own bright codes.

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