Bejewelled LINDA HUANG
The assortment of colors studded on her back shimmered forcing a reconfiguration of the rainbow into a story she could no longer recognize. Watching the different lights shift reminded me of the first time I flew across the country. We don’t have those anymore: airplanes. The first time I sat in one of those metal containers, I remembered looking down on the mountains and seeing how tightly they held the water. We flew from border to border with nothing more than laminated papers and an outdated photo. These airplanes would drift above highways and skyscraper lights before landing in a different city decorated in the same manner. It’s not like that anymore. I used to hear stories from mom about the Stable People-- a sedentary species for the most part. They often lived in the same country by the same body of water on the same land. Mom had a wild imagination. She would tell me about a time before jewels and studs. I alway believed that perhaps it was one of her jewels that gave her the power to dream. I grew up fascinated with the idea that the words “travel”, “migration”, and “refuge” were meant to describe a difference in leisure. Now, they all mean the same. I loved her stories. My favorite was the one about the Stable Peoples jewelled faces. From babies to adults, their ears and noses would be pierced with diamonds or shiny metals. It was one of the few piercings accepted during the Modern Era. Right before the end of the Modern Era, people would pierce any and all parts of their
58 • spring 2021
