The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 Read Online Free PDF Page B

now.
    It was summer, and the mixer had an island theme. The counselors had constructed this sort of deck overlooking the lake. God, they were so proud of it. They gave us green drinks with little umbrellas in them and played lazy, sighing music, and everyone danced, and Pete saw a shooting star, and we were holding hands, and you were gone forever and I forgot you.
    Â 
    I forgot you. Forgetting isn’t so wrong. It’s a Life Skill.
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    I don’t remember what my parents looked like. A Parent Figure cannot be a photograph. It has to be a more neutral object. It’s supposed to stand in for someone, but not too much. When we got to camp we were all supposed to bring our Parent Figures to dinner the first night. Everyone squeezed in at the cafeteria tables, trying to find space beside their dinner trays for their Figures, those calendars and catcher’s mitts and scarves. I felt so stupid because my Mother Figure was a lamp and there was no place to plug it in. My Father Figure is a plaque that says
Always be yourself.
    Jodi came by, as the counselors were all going around “meeting the Parents,” and she said, “Wow, Tisha, that’s a
good
one.”
    Â 
    I don’t even know if I picked it out.
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    â€œWe want you to have a fabulous time at camp!” Jodi cried. She was standing at the front with the other counselors: Paige and Veronica and Duncan—who we’d later call “Hunky Duncan”—and Eric and Carla and the others.
    Of course they’d chosen Jodi to speak. Jodi was so perky.
    She told us that we were beginning a special relationship with our Parent Figures. It was very important not to
fixate.
We shouldn’t fixate on the Parent Figures, and we definitely shouldn’t fixate on the counselors.
    My stupid lamp. It was so fucking blue. Why would you bring something blue? “The most important people in your life are the other campers!” Jodi burbled. “These are the people you’ll know for the rest of your life! Now, I want you to turn to the person next to you and say,
Hi, Neighbor!
”
    Â 
    Hi, Neighbor!
And later, in the forest, Cee sang to the sky:
Fuck you, Neighbor!
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    Camp was special. We were told that it was special. At camp you connected with people and with nature. There was no personal tech. That freaked a lot of people out at first. We were told that later we’d all be able to get online again, but we’d be adults, and our relationships would be in place, and we would have learned our Life Skills, and we’d be ready. But now was special: now was the time of friends and of the earth.
    Cee raised her hand. “What about earthquakes?”
    â€œWhat?” said Veronica, who taught The Natural World. Veronica was from an older group of counselors; she had gray hair and leathery skin from taking kids on nature hikes and she was always stretching to show that you could be flexible when you were old.
    â€œWhat about earthquakes?” Cee asked. “What about fires? Those are natural. What about hurricanes?”
    Veronica smiled at us with her awesome white teeth, because you could have awesome white teeth when you were old, it was all a matter of taking care of yourself with the right Life Skills.
    â€œWhat an interesting question, Celia!”
    We were told that all of our questions were interesting.
There’s no such thing as a stupid question!
The important thing was always to
participate.
We were told to participate in classes and hikes and shopping sprees and mixers. In History we learned that there used to be prejudice, but now there wasn’t: it didn’t matter where you came from or who you loved,
just join in!
That’s why even the queer girls had to go to the mixers; you could take your girlfriend, but you had to go. Katie used to go in a tie and Elle would wear flowers. They rolled their eyes but they went anyway and danced and it was fun. Camp was so fun.
    Cee raised her