by Wab Kinew
“Well, most people who are nice to me either want to get a selfie together or ask to borrow some money,” Bugz said. She raised her phone and noted how similar the real-world Feng looked to the Floraverse Feng. His chest and arms were thicker in the ’Verse; otherwise, his face was the same, his hair was the same, and his waist was the same size. Her eyes found his again. “Wait, you’re not going to ask me for money, are you?” Bugz smiled at her own joke. “Because I don’t have any. My parents make me leave most of it in the Floraverse for when I turn eighteen in a few years.”
“Wait, what? Are you serious?” Feng followed Bugz to their classroom. “If I had the money you do in the Floraverse, I would cash out and do school on a beach in Macau or something.”
“You sure you’re not trying to ask for money?” Bugz couldn’t shake Feng’s earlier offhand remark from her head. He probably wasn’t even thinking about my weight, she tried to remind herself. She thought again of Clan:LESS and felt forced to take a deep breath.
As they rounded a corner, they bumped into Chalice and Stormy, both of whom were using their phones as mirrors to check their makeup before class. Feng knocked Chalice’s phone to the ground and a thousand spiderweb cracks exploded across its surface.
“Sorry,” Feng muttered quickly. A worried look overtook his face as he picked up the broken phone.
“Gimme that!” Chalice snatched the device from Feng’s hands. She looked at him as though he’d just dropped a baby on the ground. Feng said nothing. She looked to him and asked, “What the hell?”
Feng paused. “Sorry. It was an accident. I’m…I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? That’s all you got?” Chalice scoffed hard, exaggerating her reaction. She studied her reflection in the broken mirror she held. The screen glitched out a few times and finally died, leaving Chalice looking at her hands through a shattered piece of glass.
“Loser!” Chalice shouted at Feng. When his presence didn’t magically evaporate, she flew into a rage and shouted again. “Friggin’ Patient Zero! They shouldn’t have let you into this school. Shouldn’t you be in quarantine or something?”
“He said sorry,” Bugz spoke up. “You don’t have to be racist.”
“I’m not being racist—it’s true.” Chalice’s hate exploded in all directions. “Every single pandemic over the past two decades started in China. Every single one.”
“That’s not true,” Feng stammered. “That’s. Not. True.”
“I can’t understand you without my phone translating. You. Broke. My. Phone!” Chalice said loudly and slowly, as though it would help. “I’ve already replaced this display twice. My dad is going to kill me!” Chalice’s voice fell a decibel short of shouting.
Feng fumed.
“Wow, he looks really mad,” Stormy said from behind her phone.
“What are you going to do? Cough on me? Where’s your mask?” Chalice egged him on.
“Holy. Just relax, I’m sure he’ll help you replace it,” Bugz said.
“How do you know? You don’t look so hot now there’s no screen between us.” Chalice spewed pure venom. “You’re just a fat girl desperate for a boyfriend. So desperate you’ll hook up with this piece of trash.”
A crowd formed, made up of kids from both the nearby town and the Rez. They exchanged glances with wide eyes.
Bugz felt something welling up inside. In the Floraverse, she knew exactly how she’d respond. She pictured her ’Versona pulling twin swords from her belt as she back-flipped high into the air, preparing to bring the blades down on Chalice. But in the real world of flesh, blood, and high-school drama, Bugz froze. Finally, she found words.
“You know, Chalice, it was a stupid accident.” Bugz’s arms burned as though she was cooking from the inside out. An image of her cousin Ally’s arms flashed in Bugz’s mind and she shook her head.
“Hey, leave my sister alone.” Waawaate stepped in between the two factions. “Chalice, you can’t talk to my sister like that. Apologize to her.”
“Sorry!” Chalice soaked her words in sarcasm. She stared at Bugz, her expression still full of hate. “You’re lucky your brother stands up for you,” she said before taking one last look at Feng, “because your little boyfriend here sure ain’t.”
“I’m not her boyfriend,” was the best Feng could muster. Bugz shot him a look of fury.
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s get out of here,” Waawaate said, putting his arm around Bugz’s shoulders. His touch felt good and seemed to cool her arms. She wiped her nose with her shirt sleeve and walked with him to the outside doors. Waawaate motioned with his head for Feng to follow. Feng scanned the crowd of stunned teenagers, all of them livestreaming the aftermath of the altercation. Some started to offer commentary to their viewers.
CHAPTER 23
“Why they gotta be like that?” Bugz asked her brother.
“Well, did Stormy say anything mean to you?” Waawaate glanced at Bugz. “Anyway, you’re right. That was super awful. I’ll talk to them later. They should give you a real apology.”
The trio walked to Waawaate’s pickup truck, climbed in, and slammed the doors, Bugz riding shotgun and Feng in the back. Waawaate settled into his seat a little tenderly, his hip apparently still bothering him. “Let’s go for a ride and chill for a bit. I’ll ask dad to call the school.” Waawaate texted with one hand and hit the vehicle’s start button with the other. “Where do you want to go?”
“Take us to the bush.”
Bugz could feel Feng watching her from the back seat as Waawaate slipped the truck into gear. As they left the school parking lot, Bugz pulled out her phone and peered into the Floraverse. She sought comfort from her supernatural friends. I’ll see you soon. She realized the others in the truck were both looking at her.
“Thanks for having my back, Waawaate.” Bugz sighed. She studied Feng through the rearview mirror. “Why did she have to talk about my weight? That’s like the one thing I’m the most sensitive about. What a loser.”
“She was trying to hurt your feelings,” Waawaate said. “Probably insecure herself.”
“I don’t think you look fat.” Feng tried to help cheer Bugz up.
“Really?” Bugz hungered for more.
“No, I don’t think you’re fat.” Feng should have left it at that, but he tried to continue comforting Bugz. “I mean, we’ve all got some extra weight, right?”
“Extra weight?” What is the matter with this guy? Bugz thought. She felt the heaviness of the day dragging her down, taking the way she felt about Feng down with it. She tried to reassure herself that he was just a dumb member of Clan:LESS anyway.
Waawaate turned around to shoot Feng a look and turned back to the road. “No. I think his translator just screwed up. Right, Feng? What you meant was…” His piercing gaze still fixated on Feng through the rearview mirror.
“What I meant was…,” Feng said as Waawaate nodded his head, “that I think you look great.” Feng continued, “You look really, really good.” Waawaate kept nodding. “I mean…” Feng’s face flushed. “You know what I mean.”
“Thanks,” Bugz said, a resigned smile on her face. “Even if my big brother is making you be nice to me.”
Country music filled the cab as they pulled on to a dirt road and drove into the forest. The path wound deep into the woods until eventually they pulled up to a bush trail.
“Here we are,” Waawaate announced. “You’ll have to hoof it the rest of the way. I’ll come pick you up later if you want. Just text.”
Bugz jumped out of the front seat and walked to the trailhead. She turned back to the truck and raised her eyebrows to Feng. He removed his seat belt.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Waawaate called after them, his tone mocking that of a concerned parent. He answered a video call on his phone from Stormy. As Feng closed the
door, Bugz heard the start of Waawaate’s conversation.
“What’s up? Hey, you can’t be mean like that to my little sister…”
His voice trailed off as the truck pulled away, leaving Bugz and Feng to walk along the path, their footsteps cushioned by red pine needles on the forest floor. Their eyes adjusted to the shade the forest canopy cast all around them. Bugz walked in the lead for a few moments until she turned to look at Feng, the renewed warmth in her eyes letting him know it was okay to join her. He caught up in a few steps and they walked side by side.
“That was messed up.” Feng exhaled.
“I know,” Bugz agreed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.”
Bugz contemplated this before stopping to face Feng. “Then why are you sorry?”
Feng searched Bugz’s face for a hint of what he should say next. He registered her facial expression, but it might as well have been written in the hieroglyphs of some long-forgotten language. And the automatic translator was no help for nonverbal cues.
I’m broadcasting this loud and clear, buddy, she thought to herself. Read it in my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Feng ventured, “that we almost got into a fight with those girls.”
“Yeah, that was really too bad.” Bugz turned and continued down the path. He didn’t get it.
Feng ran to catch up with her and thought hard about what to say next. “I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you. Especially since you had my back about the racist stuff.”
“Mm-hmm.” Bugz nodded. Please don’t make this about you.
Bugz could feel Feng’s eyes on her as he did his best to keep pace with her. As much as he frustrated her, Bugz admitted to herself that Feng’s clumsy attempts to make nice belied the picture she had of him as a member of a misogynistic neo-alt-right mob.
“What I’m most sorry about, though, is that when she called you fat…she hurt your feelings…when she was just trying to hurt my feelings.” He sighed. “And I’m sorry I made you feel that way too.”
Bugz felt herself become lighter. “It’s not your fault,” she replied, her eyes now smiling even as the stress still coiled around her spine. “It was an accident.”
Bugz pulled out her phone and scanned the chat screen. She tapped out a few replies with her thumbs, her screen glowing an amber orange as she typed. Feng pulled his phone out too.
“Holy, what’s going on?” he asked. His screen was filled with energy waves coursing wildly in random directions.
“Hey, weren’t you still sucking up to me?” Bugz teased.
“Right.” Feng chuckled, still staring at the amber glow from his screen. “It’s just I think I saw this when I drove here, but then I couldn’t find it again. It’s like we’re at the center of the universe or something.”
“The center of the center of the universe,” Bugz corrected him. “My universe, anyways.”
“Wait.” Feng stopped walking. “Did you bring me here to show me whatever it is that makes you super powerful in the Floraverse?”
“You think you’re a big deal, don’t you?” Bugz chided him. She bit her bottom lip. “It’s a good thing you’re cute.”
Bugz surprised herself with the comment. The words felt dangerous and unstoppable as they escaped her mouth, but they left only warmth behind. She basked in that feeling. Please don’t ruin it by being needy or fishing for compliments, she thought.
“What do you mean—” Feng began, but cut himself off. Bugz smiled as she watched him read the situation correctly for once and abandon whatever he’d almost said. “Thanks,” he offered instead, and thought for a second before speaking again. “You’re pretty cute yourself.”
“You don’t think I’m fat?”
“No,” he said. “I think you’re amazing.”
They walked in silence, Bugz content to let the good vibes soak into the distance the earlier conflict had created. She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep, slow breath of fresh forest air. But instead of the relaxed feeling she usually got from being in the bush, a hint of concern crept in to her brain. The boy had been quiet for too long. What was he up to? She opened her eyes, looked down, and saw his hand reaching for hers.
“What are you doing?”
Feng’s hand froze and found its way back to his side. “Nothing.” He sounded like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“You know, just because I said you’re cute doesn’t mean I want you to put your hands all over me.” Bugz stopped. She didn’t know if this was an overreaction, but she was a little freaked out things were moving so fast. Should she take back what she’d just said, or at least apologize for the tone in which she’d said it? She didn’t know, so she simply continued walking.
After a moment, she realized she enjoyed a certain power over Feng. She tested the limits of this new feeling by lording it over him as she strode ahead. She grinned as she looked down at her feet. She was leading and he was following.
CHAPTER 24
Bugz ran up to an old chain-link fence whose posts sank lazily into the forest floor. In one fluid motion, she jumped onto the fence, pulled herself to the top, and vaulted over to the other side. For that briefest of moments, she looked exactly like her ’Versona. She turned to see Feng climbing the fence and trying to look cool while doing it. She smirked.
The square-fenced perimeter defined this forest clearing. Inside sat a dozen trailers. Fragments of painted words like TCO and ISO-3 peeling from their walls bore testament to their past usage.
Bugz walked up to a trailer and forced the door open with some effort. “C’mon.” She motioned to Feng as she disappeared into the shadows. Inside the trailer she pulled her phone out, the amber screen illuminating the space around them with an eerie glow. Feng followed closely behind her and pulled his phone out too.
They walked down the narrow hallway and saw piles of file folders scattered everywhere on the floor. Black mold swept across the debris, slowly claiming new territory. Further into the trailer, they passed an administration desk and a bank of cubicles. A giant banner along one wall read Wash your hands! A matching sign on the far side spelled out N100 masks required. Bugz and Feng climbed up on the desks and made a game of jumping over the cubicle walls. They arrived at the end of the trailer. It joined another, and Bugz forced this new door open. She and Feng stepped in and stopped still in their tracks. This room never ceased to amaze Bugz.
Rows of hospital beds lined the trailer on both sides, each with racks and dollies where medical equipment had clearly once been installed. Dangling cables and wires suggested the equipment had been removed very quickly. A ventilator tube snaked out onto the floor from underneath the closest bed.
“You know what this place is?” Bugz asked.
“Let me guess.” Feng sounded awestruck. “This is where your people did isolation in the 2020s during the pandemics.”
“Bingo.” Bugz stepped forward slowly. “They called it the farm. ‘Get sent to the farm, you don’t come back,’ they said.”
“Back home, they built massive hospitals in some cities overnight. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“There’s pictures and videos showing this room full of our people. Everyone hooked up to ventilators. Emergency staff and military personnel flown in to run this center. Complete separation from the community.”
“It’s amazing your government let it get this bad. Our government isn’t perfect but the party was able to control the pandemics quickly, without mass deaths.”
“You believe that?” Bugz scoffed. “And let me guess, that’s proof democracy is overrated, right?”
“Well…”
“Well, don’t be so gullible. Some democracies beat the pandemics too; the problem we had here were the leaders at the time.
” Bugz shook her head, before motioning Feng on. “Anyway, the other trailers are more like dorms, where the people who weren’t as sick stayed. Separated from their families.”
“There’s a really spooky vibe in here.”
“People died.”
“How many—”
Suddenly, a ventilator tube came scurrying across the floor at them. Bugz jumped and screamed. Feng jumped higher and screamed louder. Before Bugz could scream a second time her phone’s light flashed off the eyes of a squirrel. The vermin scurried away to the wall, dragging the tube behind it.
Feng and Bugz looked at each other for a breath before bursting out laughing.
“Oh my god, I was so scared,” Feng roared.
“I know, so was I!” Bugz shook her head as a belly laugh took over her body. “But I wasn’t like you. You were all ‘AHHHHHH!!!!’ ” Laughter consumed her.
“Oh yeah, like you were any better.”
Bugz couldn’t stop laughing.
“Okay, come on. Stop now.”
“I can’t help it. You should’ve seen your face.”
“I get it. I was scared.”
“That was too good.” Bugz started walking to the far end of the trailer again. “Too bad I didn’t catch it on video. I could post it in your Clan:LESS group chat.” Feng did not smile but moved to catch up with Bugz. As though governed by an unspoken deal, the two of them walked closer together as they made their way down the aisle between the beds. “We used to come run around here as kids when we’d sneak out of our houses at night.”
“Wow, you guys were bad.”
“No, we weren’t bad. That’s just how it is on the Rez.” Bugz smiled at the memory. “We’d come here after dark and run around and say, ‘You’re gonna catch SARS-3 if you touch the floor.’ Then we’d jump from bed to bed and slide on the machinery racks like skateboards.”