Apex Magazine Issue 126 by Apex Magazine

Author:Apex Magazine [Magazine, Apex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: apex magazine, Magazine
Publisher: Apex Publications
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

On the edge of what had once been the reserve, the visitors met with Elders and other members of the community. They were shiny Brocken-spectre human shadows ringed with oil-slick rainbow light.

It was the closest approximation to a human they could do, they’d said, a tinny, apologetic tone to their voice. They’d wanted to take a welcoming shape. Energy radiated off them like warm sunlight. It was a word, softly spoken.

Stella still tried not to look at them. They were preparing to walk the marshland. The late afternoon light illuminated the golden sheen on the hybrid trees.

“Kwe’, cuz. We’re going to go to the Old Willow.” Maryann, her cousin, walked up to her.

Panic jumped up Stella’s throat.

“But we can’t, it’s protected.”

“E’e, just the edge of it,” Maryann said, “not actually to the whole thing. Clara wants to show them the sunset there.”

Worry surged in her veins. What if they damaged it? They’d all worked so hard to keep that old part of the land as original as possible. The willow had survived for hundreds of years.

“Okay,” Stella said. “I’m definitely coming too, then.” She didn’t know if she’d need to stop them, but she would do anything to protect that tree.

Clara, an Elder and Stella’s ex-girlfriend’s grandmother, led the group. Her clear, strong voice switched seamlessly between English and Mi’kmaq as she identified the trees: ksu’sk, hemlock, stoqn, fir. The shadows beamed and dimmed as they walked, their metallic hum echoing in the humid air.

The visitors explained that time was a spiderweb, each moment a star in a small constellation stretching blue and bright. Clara explained our language, how things are known by what they do, that colors are alive and act as verbs. The visitors shone brighter and emitted a crackling sound at that. Clara chuckled.

“You’ll see,” she said.

They walked the twenty-minute hike to Old Willow. Stella tried not to jump every time the visitors’ brightness changed or when they emitted strange sounds. Maryann wasn’t bothered at all by their appearance or their presence.

“I knew it,” she kept saying. “I always knew they were real.” She didn’t take her eyes off them.

They reached the edge of the authentic marsh where the Old Willow bowed to the still water. Reeds jutted from the soft brown-green shallows.

The visitors tried to move closer.

“Stop,” Stella yelled. Everyone in the group looked at her. Some laughed.

Clara smiled at the visitors. “This area is protected. We can’t go any further. Just wait.”

The shadows retreated back a few steps. The sunlight stretched and sank closer to the tops of the trees. People laughed among themselves, making peaceful, happy conversation. Stella allowed herself to calm.

Sunset deepened pink and orange over the water. Frogs croaked in the distance.

“See,” Clara said. “Piluamugwiaq ugs’tqamu wejgwiula’gw. The world changes color when evening arrives.”

The shadows crackled campfire bright, their rainbow rings whirling around them. The moment stretched infinite around them all, another constellation caught in the spider’s web.

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