Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History by Ken Liu, Tananarive Due, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, Sofia Samatar, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Thoraiya Dyer Read Free Book Online

around them endlessly. Again, Lottie fought the urge to run.
    “We ain’t gonna drown down here, is we?” Lottie said.
    “Not so long as you do as you’re told and don’t wander,” Uncle Jim said. “Come on.”
    As he led them past the mining car, water seeped into her worn shoes, cold enough to tingle her toes. Water dripped just beyond her nose, and Lottie looked up: sharp rock formations like swords above them stood poised to fall and slice them in two. The next water droplet caught her eye, and she panicked as the cold stung and blinded her. With a gasp, she wiped her eyes clear. Her lungs locked tight until she could see Uncle Jim’s lamp again.
    William pointed to a narrow enclave, a shelter to their right. “Here?”
    “No,” Uncle Jim said. “Not far enough in. That’s where the men crouch during the blasts. We’ll find you another like it.”
    The corridor forked, and Lottie tried to map their location the way she did in the woods, but by the next fork she was confused. No landmarks guided her here.
    The sloshing grew deafening as the floodwater rose to their shins. Lottie gathered her dress at her waist to try to avoid soaking it in stink. Mama had warned her not to stay wet, that she could get sick and die. But even though both she and Mama knew death might await her, Mama had said
Yes, let William take you and that baby away
.
There ain’t nothing for you here
.
Go see Jim
at his gold mine. At least it’s a chance
.
    But the longer Lottie walked, the less it seemed like any kind of chance. Death above or death below, it didn’t matter – dying was dying. And Lottie felt death down here.
    William gave a start, staring into the water near his feet. “Y’all see that?”
    “What?” Lottie said.
    William probed the water with his foot. “I saw… something.”
    “Quit your daydreaming,” Uncle Jim said, but he sounded frightened. He still had the bag of luck snugly beneath his shirt. Holding it tight.
    The water was higher now, at her knees. The damp fabric she carried was a heavy load. Her shins hurt from walking downhill, and the baby’s bulk nearly toppled her with each step.
    “What that bag do, Uncle Jim?” Lottie said. She raised her voice to be heard over their steady wading. “How you get it? Can I get one too?”
    Uncle Jim faced her. The lamplight aged his face, made his eyes appear to burrow into his skin. His transformation startled her. “Stop that talk.”
    “You say when you try to help, it always go wrong,” Lottie said. “How it go wrong?”
    “You got to sell your heart for freedom, Lottie,” Uncle Jim said. “Just like me.”
    “We’re not like you,” William said.
    “Sure you are, red man. I’ve been watching them round up your people. Soldiers come knocking at the door, don’t give nobody time to gather clothes. Everything you had is gone. They take the children in one wagon, the parents in the other, just to make sure nobody runs. You think they dreamed that up special for you? The ones who run – well, they don’t listen to their hearts, do they? Their hearts are cold as ice.”
    Lottie blinked away tears. She tried not to think of Mama getting lashed because Marse Campbell would never believe she didn’t know where her daughter had run to. Tried not to think about how Mama would never see her first grandchild. And that was just the best of what might come. Lottie’s shaking started again, her knees knocking like clapping hands. In a few steep footsteps, the water reached above her thighs; dark slime in her most unwanted places.
    “How it gonna go wrong for us, Uncle Jim?” Lottie said.
    When Uncle Jim was silent for a time, she gave up on having an answer. And when he spoke, she wished he hadn’t.
    “It always goes wrong, girl,” Uncle Jim said. “Don’t get it in your heads you’ll both make it up to North Carolina – and then what? Philadelphia? You’re fools if you think this ends well. You never should’ve come. Think of the last