S H O R T
STO RY
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C A R LY
D E N N I S
QUEEN OF THE HARBOR
M
ei-Mei lived on a yellow sailboat in the harbor. It was a very small sailboat, low and dark and sometimes lonely in the water, but Mei-Mei didn’t mind. Mei-Mei belonged to a very old fisherman who also lived on the sailboat. It had been many years since the fisherman had caught anything, but he continued to introduce himself as a fisherman, and that’s what people continued to call him. In the evenings, Mei-Mei and the fisherman read children’s fiction, he with whiskey and she with milk. They liked children’s fiction because words were important to them, and after all, any good story is nothing more than anarchic bundles of words pretending to be knowledge. The fisherman liked words because they were just as lovely as the fish had once been, but far more reliable. Mei-Mei liked words because of the sounds they made coming out of the mouths of humans. The Constant Family came to town in the shell of a Chinese spaceship that had fallen back down to Earth. At that time, the most cutting-edge technology in the colonization of space included a state-of-the-art launch disposal system that sent all extraneous machinery back to Earth after takeoff. The Constant Family, as manual operators of the spaceship necessary only for its launch, were classified as “extraneous machinery.” They had operated the spaceship H.M.S. Prudence so that its primary passenger might continue on to Mars. They had been chosen for this role primarily because of their collective ability to receive instructions and push buttons. The Constant Family had not expected to crash in Harborville, but upon inspection, they were quite pleased with their new home. “Destiny,” cried Mr. Constant, “that we
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should land in such a productive and prolific land! This water, this earth—it will nourish our descendents for generations to come!” Mrs. Constant, having immediately decamped to the nearest boutique, found that there would indeed be a suitable supply of small-town gossip, and wasted no time in helping to maintain the intricate infrastructure of rumours, grudges, and prejudice. “The best thing about small towns,” she told her husband, “is that it is truly impossible for anybody to be anything other than ridiculous!” Even little Benny and Tommy Constant took to the new land. The old-growth forest was a playground for them, replete with waterslides and rope swings and balancing beams and swimming pools and treehouses, and even conveniently placed public snacks. Only moody Sadie Constant felt upset by this development. Young people are always particularly sensitive to change, despite what they tell themselves. At seventeen, Sadie was the only member of the family old enough to remember, but not yet willing to forget. After moving past their outrage at the recklessness of the Chinese Space Agency, the citizens of Harborville began to realize that the crash-landing might actually be a boon to the Economy. The travel agency immediately mobilized its top media consultants to organize a welcoming party, in order to photograph Mr. and Mrs. Constant shaking hands with the Mayor, and photographs were sent out to all the biggest news outlets in the world, the better to attract visitors and stimulate the tourism industry. The biggest retailer in town, Lee’s Sporting Goods, gave each of the Constants a pair of boots and a raincoat emblazoned with the Lee’s logo. The Manager of Lee’s hoped that one of the new arrivals might accept a job at
the store; he had been suffering from a dire shortage of employees, that was a result of the poor Economy. The Constants were also given a home of their own. If there was one thing the City of Harborville did well, it was the making of homes and the eating of food. Yes, the Economy might be in the dumps and the city might be broke, but the people knew how to keep themselves alive! The houses seemed as though they’d been built explicitly from and for the conditions of a temperate rainforest; the structures were small and humble and beautiful, and exclusively constructed from local materials that blended subtly with the colors around them. The fireplaces were placed exclusively in the centers of the houses, the better to keep out the cold and damp, and the better to welcome multitudes of friends and neighbors in the cold and dark months. Root cellars and smokehouses and greenhouses and gardens extended out from each home, because no house was complete without a vast supply of food, and this, too, was a great success for Harborville. The pride of the town—the wild peach trees—grew abundantly down the street and up into the valley and all across the island, and the people of Harborville explained proudly and reverently that all who lived on the island were free to take the wild peaches as they pleased. The Constants were given all these things; a home with a fireplace in the middle, and a freezer and a greenhouse and all the peaches they could eat. “I’ll warn you, though,” said the Mayor to Mr. Constant after the photographers had left, “Harborville is in tough times. No jobs and no workers. Making a living doesn’t come easy these days.” Neither Mei-Mei nor the fisherman felt that they belonged in Harborville anymore.
