Oktober Mermaids

Portal to the Bottom

"We've crossed the threshold," Nekocabre tells me, "to the place of no return," standing at the precipice between the "good side" of Tower District, and the side they use when filming Fresno crime on cop shows.

We call the scrawniest and patchiest cat in the neighborhood Nekocabre, because she's the walking dead. Her cyborged life is going to end soon. A clump of hair is unraveling from her leg, even now.

Death scares us, but no one blinks in the face of a talking cat, because it's 2020, the Year Anything Can Happen; so we're good with the affluent lesser mammals, the totalitarian artificial intelligence systems, the puppet democracy and ten-cent cupcakes with the vitamins in them.

Everything is smooth sailing, no-questions-asked utopia except here.

Beyond the threshold. I pump air into my chest. I can't believe I'm crossing it...

In Fresno's armpit, the Internet of Things isn't available. The free WiFi, gutted. No health care, weather reporters, or clean water; the people in the bottom 1% receiving little, all to benefit the 99% who are happy. 

The 1% eat wild chicken out of trash fires. 

I look skeptically to Nekocabre.

"Don't be like that," the old cat says. "You have to hurry. The border only opens an hour before dusk; and once the sun sets completely, if you aren't on the other side..."

So I ran.

I hurried into the dark wood—rather than trying to escape it—since our fairy tales aren't about safety. Our story is one of being too safe to feel brave.

There's no guarantee I'll make it back to the 99% who are happy. 

But I have to go. 

I only hope I return to the threshold in time.

♦

First Draft: October 18

Word Count: 303

Inspiration: The Halloween Vault contest, "Stranded on the Other Side," located here:

https://www.wattpad.com/645481687-halloween-vault-stranded-on-the-other-side