Questions Asked in the Belly of the World
Page 4
Kenji understands. All too well.
A few days later, Kenj leaves Caro’s house, climbs into their boat, rows to the center of the River, where the World goes silent, and lies down. Where did she go? he wonders.
“She’s gone,” her voice whispers.
“Says you,” he replies with a scoff. Why didn’t she tell him where she was going?
“Because you were holding her back,” her voice replies. And for a moment, Kenji’s battered heart aches with the possibility.
“Stop lying,” he says through clenched teeth. “Or I’ll cut you out myself.”
Her voice hisses but doesn’t respond.
He allows the boat to float downstream to the historic district, to where Eva’s sculpture is.
He docks at the nearest pier, climbs out, and approaches the masterpiece.
But without Eva, no one notices him. For the first time in years, he’s able to study every crease and wrinkle and curve of the sculpture in peace.
This is how he finds the answer.
At the base of the ship, among the crowd of paper people, two paper children stand slightly apart, not looking at the ship but at something else far in the distance. One’s pointing upstream, in a determined, adventurous stance, and Kenji notices half of her face is creased and ridged. The other is next to her, following her line of sight, holding a clean sheet of paper in his hands.
And Kenji knows then. He knows exactly where Eva went.
With a smile, he climbs back into his boat and turns it against the current.
Eva and all his answers are upstream. They always have been.
Eva’s voice begins to scream. It screams at him to stop, it screams at him to turn around, to obey. But Kenji is no longer afraid of the World, and even at its loudest, the voice in his head has become small, powerless.
Kenji laughs as he starts to row, pushing forward into the darkness, into the great, swelling unknown.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Begin Reading
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by A. T. Greenblatt
Art copyright © 2021 by Rebekka Dunlap