Hive Ave Fall2024 - Flipbook - Page 49
Hive Avenue Literary Journal
and Patty was exhausted. It took much longer to cross through
the overgrown woodland than she’d expected. She’d lost time
untangling her hair from shaggy branches, taking breaks from
the pain her heavy backpack caused, and breaking leaves and
branches o昀昀 of plants that blocked her path so she could make
her own. Her back and arms ached. So did her feet and legs. She
switched the backpack to her front, straps crossed together
across her back. She wasn’t sure how much it really helped. Or
how much farther she could make it before she’d have to get
some real rest.
As Patty forged on, the trees began to thin, spaces
between them opening wider. The shrubbery that grew below
stood shorter and much easier to manage. It clumped together
in smaller crowds. Patty was relieved when she didn’t have to
bring her knee to her chest with each step over another obstacle. This lifted her spirits. She found con昀椀dence in her plan once
more. Ahead of her, the lifting light of dawn danced between the
darkness of the tree trunks and their shadows. Patty squinted
her eyes for a better view.
It seemed, just beyond the next few rows of trees, a clearing opened. Patty suspected the railroad tracks couldn’t be set
back much farther than that. She pushed through the last few
oak trees, wide trunks standing farther apart than the ones
she’d been 昀椀ghting through not ten minutes earlier. The open
expanse spanned a wide space, 昀椀lled with huge clumps of shinhigh grasses, tall green blades interspersed with lines of dead,
brittle yellow. In some spaces, puddles of water shone through,
re昀氀ecting the 昀椀rst light of the new day back up from the dark
ground. A few fallen trees cut through the clearing. They wore
sheathes of moss, complete with lines of white and orange
fungus along their edges like stitching.
A few steps in, Patty’s con昀椀dence disappeared. She hurried forward, ready to 昀椀nd the railroad tracks on the other
side of the clearing, just past another stand of trees. She never
made it that far. Just into the clearing, Patty stumbled into a
peat bog. In seconds, she sunk into the muck up to her waist.
She could hardly move her legs to get them unstuck, and as
she sunk deeper, she couldn’t move them at all. Patty shrieked
once as she struggled to untangle herself from the weight of
the backpack, straps still crossed over one another on her back.
The struggle pulled her down faster. The girl sunk like a stone.
Within moments, the rippling surface in the clearing just a
few miles from her house had stilled with Patty tucked away
beneath, lungs slowly 昀椀lling with mud. Another bog body swallowed in silence.
Fiction
昀椀lls with the sounds of metal scraping. A brief reprieve from
the roaring silence that only grows as the emptiness surrounds
them. That silence—they all fear what waits behind it.
A swarm of memories buzzes in each of their minds, desperate to escape and 昀椀nd the relief of recognition. Mostly, they
remember their last moments. The 昀椀nal events of their lives
that brought them to the waiting room. These were their only
stories to share. And so, they shared. Patty looks up after 昀椀nishing her telling to 昀椀nd all eyes chewing into her. Most of the
others are older than her, though one little boy she guesses is
only about half her age. He’s the only one who remembers more
than she does. Some of them are about as old as her mother
had been. Some of them sitting in that circle of metal folding
chairs are so old their voices shake. Even with all of their memories, would they remember being fourteen? Patty isn’t so sure.
She doesn’t expect anyone to understand. She studies the dirt
caked under her 昀椀ngernails. She doesn’t know what to say now.
“Anyway, that’s how I ended up here.”
The woman with short, dark hair sitting across from
Patty reminds her most of her mother. Patty tries not to look at
her, but she is the 昀椀rst to respond to Patty’s telling. Her voice is
warm and it breaks when she speaks. “Oh darling, that’s so scary
out there on your own.” A shuddering breath cleaves her words
apart. “Your mother must miss you dearly.” A raw feeling rises
to lodge in Patty’s throat. She struggles to breathe around it.
“Don’t we all come here alone?” Patty chokes out, colder
and harder than she means. She crosses her arms. Marcy, the
woman who’s spoken up, bites back the rest of what she’d had
to say. The group’s silence stretches on. No one can argue with
Patty this time. She clears her throat again and picks at a dried
昀氀eck of mud on the side of her thigh, letting the silence that
looms in the darkness 昀椀ll the center of the room. It roars and
roars and roars.
9
Patty clears her throat. She looks around the room of listeners. They crouch together in a circle of folding chairs around
the dim, candlelit waiting room. An onyx doorway on either
side seals them inside. Not one of them knows what lay beyond,
either way. Every now and then, a wind 昀椀nds its way beneath one
of the stone doors, cooling the room as it whines. The waiting
had grown tedious. And chilly. The more wind that 昀椀nds them,
the tighter the group circles. As chairs fold and unfold, the room
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