The Last Rickshaw [Crossed Genres 18, 2011]. It’s about change, and it’s a love letter to the city of my childhood.
Well, one last fare, he decides, pulling over. She clambers onto the rickshaw, coughing as she breathes in the smoke, doing battle with the pipes as she climbs up over the front wheel. She uses one as a step into the seat; ducks beneath another. He worries her headscarf is going to catch in the pipes. He really should tie them together, but she manages okay. “KOMTAR,” she says, and he thinks it odd that she’s not bothering to barter, but he doesn’t question it, just fiddles with the buttons and heads towards the tower in the distance.
Overhead, the airships float lazily by, and the hooks fly across the sky to wrap around the poles protruding from the KOMTAR.
“The airships are flying low tonight,” she says, once, and he hums his agreement. He’s not much of a talker.
Stephanie Lai 