The Future

by Catherine Leroux, Susan Ouriou

Genres: Alternative History sci-fi; Dystopian

Synopsis

One of Tor.com's "Can't Miss Speculative Fiction for Fall 2023" • Listed in CBC Books Fiction to Read in Fall 2023

In an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees.

In an alternate history of Detroit, the Motor City was never surrendered to the US. Its residents deal with pollution, poverty, and the legacy of racism—and strange and magical things are happening: children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves. When Gloria arrives looking for answers and her missing granddaughters, at first she finds only a hungry mouse in the derelict home where her daughter was murdered. But the neighbours take pity on her and she turns to their resilience and impressive gardens for sustenance.

When a strange intuition sends Gloria into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city’s orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can’t imagine the strength she will find. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love—together.

 

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Release date: September 5, 2023

Publisher: Biblioasis

Print pages: 291

Sample

Ten days after Gloria’s arrival, her neighbour is killed on the street.

It’s the noise that roots her to the spot at first, a crash like a hacking cough, a beam giving way after years of wear and tear. A sound both swift and deafening. In that contrast, she realizes just how serious this must be.

When Gloria steps outside, the woman from next door has already reached the twisted figure in the middle of the street. Gloria wonders how she made it there so quickly. Only thirty seconds earlier, she had heard her muttering to herself as she stood in her backyard pinning jumbo-sized T-shirts to the clothesline, a structure of concentric squares, dimensions within dimensions. She must be the kind of person capable of reaching unheard-of speeds when a loved one’s life is in danger.

All that remains is a mound of clothing, as though the force of the impact had dissolved the man inside. The woman bends over, her hands clutching at the fabric. Since arriving in the city, Gloria has witnessed countless scenes between this woman and her father. One time, he hid behind the hedge and wolfed down an entire birthday cake. Walked out of the house carrying a flaming tea towel. Sat, naked as a worm, behind the steering wheel of the old Pontiac parked in the alley. Every time, his daughter came running, grabbed the old man by the arm, and led him back inside, scolding him all the while. He wasn’t to go out on his own, she reminded him, it was too dangerous. Fate has proved her right.

Crouched on the street, the woman wails, “Papa! Papa!” Gloria feels as though someone should walk over, lay a hand on her shoulder, murmur words of comfort. But there’s no one else in sight on Avenue Clyde. She looks down at the half-rotted steps and her feet striped with veins. Then a man with a greying beard comes at a run. He bends over the old-timer and reaches into the shambles his body has become. Noting his efficient gestures, Gloria assumes he must be a doctor. She sees him bow his head without a word and begin compressions on the downed man’s chest even though he, the woman, and Gloria all know there is no hope. The downed man’s daughter cries soundlessly, her mouth gaping wide as though trying to swallow the horror. She is in that space where events still seem reversible, where death is still so close you think you can call it off. The shadow of a bird passes overhead, and Gloria can see it is the old man’s soul. She turns. Her legs carry her inside. Her whole body feels shrouded in something like ether. Death has invaded the sky.

Through open windows, she hears what ensues—the sobbing, the phone calls, a few family and friends arriving, their hushed conversations. The sounds of the kitchen, of papers being shuffled, of objects being picked up and put down based on a new order. What she does not hear is an ambulance or a police car, nor anyone mentioning the driver who fled the scene or demanding that justice be served. So it’s true. Fort Détroit has become a place devoid of faith or law.

* * *

The next morning, islands of mist waft over the vast wild field that stretches like a prairie behind the house. Young deer stand poised on the horizon like so many tightrope walkers. Gloria steps onto the rear porch carrying a cup of chicory root tea. She thinks back to what used to stand there. She has only ever been to this house once before, fifteen years ago. The year of her first grey hair. At that time, the porch looked over a row of decrepit yet still-standing buildings. Abandoned, burnt, they have since collapsed, and the earth is busy grinding down their remains.

A creaking echoes on the other side of the fence with its missing slats. The neighbour is also outside, fleeing a too-quiet house.

Gloria walks over to her. “I’m so sorry,” she murmurs. “About the accident. I . . . My condolences.”

Her neighbour acknowledges her words with a nod, keeping her sturdy body half turned away.

“It’s crazy,” continues Gloria. “They should put in speed bumps.”

Her neighbour snorts, the kind of laugh people give when they no longer believe something is possible. “Who are they?” she retorts. “The city? The blue-collar workers? Even the undertaker doesn’t come to the house anymore. We had to pay some guy to take him in his pickup ’cause the funeral home hasn’t got a hearse left. Motor City, my ass.”

The neighbour looks away and her anger fades, spent. Gloria tiptoes back to the yellow house.

* * *

Shadows dribble from the light as it passes through the fan on its way to the table, to Gloria’s fingers. She hasn’t budged for an hour. She stares at her hands, dappled by the fragments of night raining from the ceiling. If only she could do nothing but this for days. Stay on at the table where Judith no longer sits and contemplate this pelting free of pain.

Eventually, however, she reaches for the phone. This time, the line works. She dials the number she knows by heart by now, the one burning her fingertips. You have reached the Fort Détroit police station. We are unable to . . . Gloria hangs up. She knows the message by heart, too, even the voice delivering it so tentatively, as though it had run out of excuses to serve up to citizens.

Gloria comes from a slow-moving world where events occur one after another. It would take more than a single lifetime to assimilate everything that has gone on in this house. Where she comes from, things change so imperceptibly it’s even hard to mark the passage of days or years. With no sign of transformation, time stagnates. Here, the opposite holds true, time gallops ahead. Gloria feels as though she has aged another decade since arriving. There’s nothing like the death of a child to project you into an age beyond your years.

All of a sudden, a tiny shadow appears beneath the pantry door. Advancing swiftly, it sniffs the air, detects the human presence, and freezes as though to make itself invisible. With its pointed head and fur as grey as a dust ball, the rodent bobs over the tiles’ faded pattern, then scampers away, not making a sound. Gloria opens the door to the pantry she has yet to fully explore. It’s a long, well-organized cupboard. Narrow shelves for spices, medium ones for cans, and large ones for flour and sugar and bags of dried peas. A space meant for abundance, designed for generosity. Gloria breathes in the scent of brown sugar and mustard that clings, out of sheer nostalgia, to the flaking paint. Because other than calcified stains and insect wings in the corners, these shelves have been bare for decades. The kitchen is an empty vessel. What can a field mouse possibly find here? On the table, shadows cast by a sudden sunbeam striking the fan transform into stunning reflections. One escapes, climbs the wall, and attacks the wallpaper like the flame from a lighter. Before she fully grasps what is going on, Gloria finds herself moving to extinguish the spark igniting the wall’s warped covering.

* * *

On her way out to do her groceries, Gloria hears a sudden commotion from inside the green house next door. The soft thud of objects being thrown every which way. An exasperated litany of dull thumps. Rage has resurfaced. As she starts down the avenue, she sees her neighbour bring out a box full of clothing and toiletries. Without sparing a glance for Gloria, she drops the whole lot onto the sidewalk. Some feel the need to get rid of every last trace right away. Others want to keep living with the traces even when that means walking around with a house on their back.

Petals rain down on the streets, the fluttering of tiny, imprecise wings. The indulgence of May blossoms. Their future of bitter fruit. Gloria loiters, hoping a few will lodge in her hair. She wants to walk into the store and have someone mention the spring shower; above all, she wants someone to say something beautiful to her.

On the way there, she thinks of the cities she has known. None like this one. None as honest, she realizes. Continually monitored, restored, rejuvenated, the other cities perpetuate the fable of immutability: that human constructions are eternal. In Fort Détroit, that myth no longer exists. The impermanence of things, their fragility in the face of the elements, is on full display. Pavement disappears in chunks, sidewalks crumble. The naked trunks holding up electric cables welcome the new life that climbs and grafts itself to their porous wood. Houses are gutted, torn apart by fire and neglect. Nature has returned to occupy them; they let themselves be consumed.

Gloria walks for over half an hour, dreaming of Mason jars filled with rice, beans, flour, all arranged by colour. There is only one convenience store in the whole of the city’s west side that still occasionally sells mushy fruit and vegetables. Once there, she notices a structure resembling a scrap-iron skeleton in the parking lot. It’s a huge matchstick figure built out of disparate materials. Its left arm is raised, as though to greet passersby. At its feet, two young children in blue school uniforms return its greeting under their father’s amused gaze. On the wall behind them, torn posters reveal fragments of words—HAVE YOU SEEN THEM?—the missing and their faces, gone from each poster, like fallen teeth.

Once inside, Gloria hopes to unearth bread somewhere but finds only pancake mix. No eggs. Lukewarm milk. Black bananas. She settles for two cans of bacon and beans, a jar of marinated beets, raisins. In any case, for weeks now, eating has become a chore for her. Food tumbles around in her mouth like gravel.

She returns home at a leisurely pace, admiring the houses that are still standing; they are modest, even the most comfortable of them, and, for the most part, abandoned. But each looks grateful to still be here. They breathe; they close their eyes. They ask for mercy.

* * *

The next morning, Gloria sits down to her bland bacon and beans, pecking away as she flips through Le Citoyen libre. The meal reminds her of her grandmother, and the newspaper reminds her of the city’s forebears. The paper denounces the proposed demolition of the Tour de Lys. It says the tottering monument was commissioned by Cadillac himself, yet only completed a decade or so after the death of the founder of Fort Détroit. It contends that the structure is Francophone America’s Leaning Tower of Pisa. Who would ever suggest destroying Pisa’s famed monument?

She is on the horoscope page when Francelin knocks. Gloria doesn’t need to look through the peephole to know who it is. He’s the only one who comes to visit. She hides in the pantry to wait for his steps to retreat. Then she opens the front door. A small pyramid of lemons appears on the doorstep.

It was Francelin who came to open the door for her the day that she arrived. Stepping inside, Gloria wondered why he’d bothered to lock it. Clearly, the lock hadn’t stopped anyone. All the windows were broken as was pretty well everything on the main floor, which wasn’t much. The worst mess came from the stuff that had been brought into the house after it was trashed. Food wrappers, cigarette butts, empty bottles, a disgusting stench.

“That’s typical Fort Détroit. Leave a place empty for thirty seconds and you can be sure someone’ll take a shit inside,” said Francelin, pointing to a pile of excrement in a corner of the living room.

At Gloria’s stunned expression, he made quick work of removing the pile with a shovel, taking pity on the grieving woman in her sixties.

Young and robust, his vitiligo making his expression elusive, Francelin had appointed himself guardian of the neighbourhood’s abandoned homes. Hence it was with a certain authority that he set out to offer Gloria a grand tour as though she had no connection to the place. She turned him down flat when he suggested showing her the second floor and assured him she would rather clean the rest up herself.

That didn’t stop him from returning the next day with new windows, which he installed with amazing ease. She tried to pay him; he refused.

“I took them from a dead one.”

“A dead person?”

“A dead house. An abandoned place nobody goes to anymore. The opposite of one that’s alive.”

“Oh.”

“These’re a standard model, easy to find,” Francelin said as he wiped away the prints his fingers had left on the panes. “Just like for any other doors, sinks, light fixtures . . . All almost the same.”

“And bathtubs?”

“Tubs too,” Francelin said, averting his gaze.

He left her a brush, some soap, a broom, and a few garbage bags. He felt sorry for her.

* * *

Gloria presses the lemons using a crooked fork. She dilutes the juice, adds a bit of sugar and a pinch of salt, pours herself a glassful, then steps out onto the back porch. Instantly, condensation forms beads on the glass even though the heat is not actually all that extreme. It’s the humidity, thinks Gloria, all that water rising from water. She sits and thinks of Lac Sainte-Claire, Lac Érié, Lac Huron. Of the Détroit and Sainte-Claire rivers, their narrow passages like birth canals. She thinks of the forces that originate there, redefining the climate and borders.

An arrival interrupts her thoughts. Across the way, her neighbour lollops in her direction, carrying a pink box. Gloria waves.

“Don’t know why folks are so bent on bringing me dessert. Here. Some pastries for ya.”

Gloria accepts the box and pours lemonade for her guest, who sits down on a step and lets her gaze linger on the gouged porch and the broken glass in the flowerbeds.

“They really did a number on this place! Mind you, it’s already a miracle it didn’t go up in flames. The malefactors showed some mercy.”

“Malefactors?”

“The druggies, the junkies. There’s a whole gang of ’em round here.”

Gloria offers her a pastry, but she shakes her head. “I’m a diabetic, no sugar for me. That stuff could kill me. But your lemonade’s great. Not too sweet.”

She looks to be well over forty, with broad shoulders, steely eyes, and a mouth made for smiling. A good, obstinate, honest woman. She drums her fingers on the glass.

“So,” she resumes in a curt tone. “How much did ya pay for it? Eight thousand? Nine thousand? Make me laugh with the great deal you got.”

“I didn’t buy it. It’s my daughter’s house.”

The neighbour sets her glass down. The air slows.

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs.

She truly is. Her body shifts, goes from hard to soft. She has recognized something familiar where least expected. She lays her hands on her thighs, leans in. Evening settles in slivers of blue onto the city.

“You’ll see, there’s not much left round here. A buncha crooks, a coupla good eggs—Theo, the guy who tried to revive my dad, he’s one of ’em. He’s a nurse, helps people with what ails ’em. You already know Francelin, he’s always helpful but a bit thick at times. A lotta crooks though . . . You’ll need to get yerself a weapon.”

Gloria shrugs. She’s never held a gun in her life.

“My name’s Eunice. If you need anything, I’m just next door.”

* * *

By the glow from the bulb, Gloria studies the crumpled words. It’s as though they flee any reading. She does manage to make out Libra. Your sleep is under assault. Don’t let guilt overcome you; forgiveness begins with yourself. Watch out for a chill in the air. Her eyes shift further down the column to Leo. Stop running. An unexpected friend comes to you. It’s time to unclench your fists. Lucky numbers: four, thirteen, twenty-two. Surprised, she shakes her head but continues on to Aquarius, her sign, the only one from which she expects no miracles. You are poised to enter a new world. Don’t be afraid; ghosts do exist, but they wish you well. Carve out your place. Your colours are green and blue. She finds the astrologist’s name, one that is both sibylline and appropriate: Father Pontchartrain she reads at the top of the column. The bulb’s light flickers then fades. Another power failure.

She gets up from her makeshift bed in the living room. There must surely be a more decent mattress than this dirty, sagging couch somewhere upstairs. But Gloria can’t bring herself to venture there. Outside, all the streetlights are extinguished; the darkness is as dense as well water. Although she has trouble seeing, she’s positive there’s something moving out there. Like a rustling in space, a startling in the tranquility of night. Stray dogs bark. She remembers Eunice’s advice to carry a firearm. She thinks of all the stories she has heard about Fort Détroit and all those she has yet to hear. Once attention is paid, one tale follows another like scarves from a magician’s sleeve. The city of revolts, bankruptcies, injustices, and stray bullets, the city of curses, pyromaniacs, and poltergeists. Gloria presses hard against the glass as though to keep every one of them out.

Across the street, a rundown house seems to cough in the night. A whining sounds, one she takes at first for a shrill laugh, but it could be a rattling instead. Then silence cloaks the night again. It was probably just a beam collapsing, or a remnant of some kind giving way. Where she comes from, people name houses, and once baptized, they neither crumble nor empty. What is this one’s name? she wonders, listening to the creaking from the second floor. But soon she plugs her ears. She doesn’t want to hear the answer given by the ghosts.

* * *

The morning is biting as though air from the freezer had blanketed the place overnight. Gloria takes advantage of the blackout to thaw what had become an icy, impenetrable grotto. Once defrosted, the freezer loses its cavernous look and its aura of mystery. It stinks of freon and swallows all sound. Gloria sticks her head inside and cries, “Ho!” Her voice is cut off midway. She murmurs “Cassandra, Mathilda.” The words disappear, sucked into the void. Like her two granddaughters.

Once she has finished her chore, she turns to the cans of paint Francelin brought over the day before. She opens them to reveal the turquoise inside. It’s as though two large aquamarine eyes are staring back at her. Or perhaps at the wall that was once white and is now covered in dirt and water damage.

A few strokes and she can’t take any more. The brush is instantly coated in disgusting grime, and the stains are even more visible than before. As with certain faces and certain cities, some rooms show more wear when an attempt is made to spruce them up. Gloria scans her arms, her bare feet. There’s more paint on her body than on the wall.

Since her arrival in Judith’s house, she has had only sponge baths, shivering in front of the small sink in the half bath on the main floor. The thought of sliding into the tub upstairs is unbearable. But today, a washcloth won’t suffice. After seven minutes weighing the pros and cons and two minutes spent staring at her horoscope, she decides to knock on the door of the green house.

“I can’t use my bathroom. And I really need a shower.”

The neighbour frowns for a few seconds, then her forehead unknots. She has understood. A towel beneath her arm and slippers on her feet, Gloria enters Eunice’s house.

It’s one of those homes that forever brings vegetable stew to mind. The furniture, the rugs, the colour of the walls, everything has a hint of stew, the very essence of stew. Comfort, force of habit, a certain blandness coupled with a feeling of safety. Gloria finds herself transported back to her village and to the houses of her childhood friends, their mothers with bouffant hairdos, the counters smelling of vinegar. Eunice leads her to a beige bathroom that complements the brown reigning elsewhere. On their way, Gloria catches sight of a table groaning under all the various electronic parts and tools.

“That’s my bread and butter,” explains Eunice. “I fix old radios.”

The water pressure is strong, and Gloria can feel herself melting under the steaming jet. Her body is stiff with aches and pains whose onset she never felt. The shower releases some of her tension. For a moment, putting her clothes back on, she experiences the buoyant state that used to be hers. But then, the weight returns to her shoulders.

Eunice invites her to sit down to salad with her. Stunned, Gloria stares at the gleaming tomatoes, the velvety shoots of arugula, the tiny balls of garlic flowers, the chopped basil. She turns her astonished gaze to Eunice.

“I know people,” she states, pleased with herself.

Gloria shuts her eyes as she bites into her first tomato. A burst of life explodes onto her tongue. For the first time in weeks, the beginning of an appetite quivers inside her.

“So, think you’ll stay for good?”

Gloria looks hard at her hostess, who adds, “You’re painting the place, got new windows . . . Looks like you’re settling in for a stretch.”

“For a while, yes,” says Gloria, wiping her mouth.

Eunice lowers her eyes and purses her lips as though to lessen the question she’s about to ask. “The two girls, Cassandra and Mathilda . . . we haven’t seen ’em since . . . since their mother . . . Where’re they at?”

Gloria downs a mouthful of soda. The bubbles fizz madly in her throat, a swarm of scalding words. “I don’t know. They disappeared the same day as Judith . . . That’s why I want to stay on.”

Eunice nods gravely, serves Gloria a second helping. Tomato seeds glisten on the plate like so many nuggets of gold. Neither woman touches on the possibilities. That Mathilda and Cassandra may have been kidnapped by the same person who killed their mother. That they, too, may be dead. That what happened prior to that was no doubt worse than all the rest.

On her way home, Gloria catches sight of something moving in the opacity of a cedar grove. It looks like an ermine’s belly, or a snow fox, a creature of blinding white. One that flees with a metallic clatter.

* * *

From the bottom porch step, Gloria scatters sunflower seeds. She thought she saw the tiny grey silhouette of her field mouse under the shade of a beech tree. The seeds fall close to the steps at first, then she throws them farther and farther, hoping to draw the animal out from its burrow. But the rodent doesn’t budge, refusing to surface from beneath the dead leaves where its movements are barely visible. After a while, ...