The Language of the World

By Raven McAllister

Aisha knows her father has been slowly fading into the grip of Parkinson’s Disease. But when he beckons her home during finals to see what he calls ‘the horse head tree’ for herself, she begins to question if something else isn’t at play.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frith Books
• Release date: Nov 17, 2016

Raven McAllister

Raven McAllister is psychotherapist hailing from southwest Louisiana. His stories have been featured on a number of eZine sites such as Dark Energy Speculative Fiction, Macabre Cadaver, and Flashes in the Dark. His latest story, “With the Devil in Your Eyes,” is part of the Hindered Souls anthology released in October 2016, and his story “4 Turns” will be featured in the upcoming Between the Tracks collection.

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The Language of the World by Raven McAllister

Published by Frith Books © 2016 Raven McAllister. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover design by Anna Reith for Frith Books © 2016

Original art © PsychoShadow/ www.bigstockphoto.com

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The Language of the World

Raven McAllister

You’re going to hit a fork in a road that was never a fork at all, baby boy.

It’s a decision parading around to be something it isn’t, a ‘choice’ that’s really just going through the motions. They’re decisions we made a long time back. It just takes something out of the bubble to happen to see them for what they are: calculated, done, and already a part of our cores. Sometimes, though, it may take more than that. It may take something completely estranged from our understanding of what this world really is.

You know I didn’t finish college, but I need you to know—and I need you to believe—that you weren’t the reason for that. Your grandpa, who you’ve never known, wasn’t the reason either, but I think he would have understood why better than anyone. I’m going to try to give you the real reason, baby boy, in this next entry. You may not believe what you read here—your father never believed it—but all I ask is that you consider it. That you try to hear it, and know that it’s there. I’m talking about the language.

I need you to know how to answer it. You don’t know this yet, but that nice team of doctors who have been helping me had to let me know that… well, I won’t be there to speak for you.

When your grandpa first called to tell me about that horse head tree, he forced some fast decisions on me. I could have chalked it up