Currant Jam

Two twins, Amelia and Arthur, collect currants in the abandoned posthuman town.

Birds chirped and hopped about, just back home from their winter migration. The air still had a slight chill to it, and not all the snow had yet melted, but it was warm enough for the first harvest of currants. Amelia and Arthur, twins that were eight years of age, walked about the ghost town that had long since been reclaimed by nature. Wild roses were showing their first blooms; the light purple flowers would soon make an excellent jam, but there was still a month to wait. For now, the twins walked about collecting the currants for their father, who was tending to the bees. 

The currant bushes grew all along the abandoned shops and houses. Amelia thought about what the town might have looked like before the sickness that wiped out everyone but her father. Amelia’s dad often told Arthur and her about what it was like. How he used to give eggs to the townspeople and how he used to play a game called DnD with his friends. Whenever her dad talked about his friends, he got all sad. He was close with them, but they had died of the sickness. She and her brother once asked him if any of his friends were their mother but their dad said no and that he had given birth to the two of them himself, as he had all the correct parts for it. Amelia picked some flowers to put on their graves as thanks for being good friends to her dad.

Soon enough, the twins’ baskets were full of currants, and it was time to go home to make the jam. Amelia and Arthur both enjoyed making and eating jam, but Amelia wished for someone to share it with. Amelia once asked Arthur if he ever wished for another friend, and unlike Amelia, Arthur was content to live a quiet life with just her and their dad. But Amelia was much different. She wanted adventure, and she wanted people to adventure with. Maybe a knight or a cowboy! The sickness could not have killed everyone; even Amelia’s father agreed, but he was scared that any people left might be bad and want to hurt them. But not all people could be terrible; there had to be some good ones too. And if none of the good people had stepped up to stop the bad ones, Amelia would do it herself. She could be a superhero like Spider-Man or Batman! Her dad had told the twins that the comics were all made up, but that made no difference to Amelia; she would make them real.

Then, as it would seem, Amelia’s prayers were answered. Because as her father was boiling the currants on the stove, something impossible�"something that under no circumstances should have happened�"did happen. There was a knock on the door.