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      • The Floor Wallows Lower
      • Cornflowers
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      • selenophilia
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      • If a poisonous snake bites itself, will it die?
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      • A Night in Recovery
      • sleeping gypsie
      • paper dolls&goodbyes
      • We Are Women
      • Village Air
      • Sunshine's Laughter
      • the male gaze
      • The Forensic Entomologist
      • Lacking
      • Drowning
      • Adelie
    • Create the Wonders We Dream (2021) >
      • Editors' Note (2021)
      • Zove
      • I'm Sorry
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      • Eyes Intertwined
      • Perfect
      • Only a Moment
      • A Dangerous Word
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      • The Last 100 Meters
      • The Green Void (Villanelle)
      • The Whimsical Galaxy (Sestina)
      • The Silent Kindness
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      • Empty
      • little flame
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      • Sweet Honey Bee Stings
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      • Delete
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      • him or Him?
      • Ocean
      • Es Llaner Beach
      • Sewn Together
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      • Yes, I Like
      • The Legacy of the Moon
      • The Wind Whimpers
      • From Here I See
      • To Feel Clean
      • Red
      • Survival
      • Substance
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      • Midnight Tango
      • Ode to a Spleen
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      • Lifeline
      • Everest
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      • How Much of Reality Can Be Observed
      • What is a Spork
      • What is the difference between love and in love
      • What would you have wanted? me to say
      • Planet Caravan
      • The Journey of a Minute
      • The Circus of Scars
      • Mosaic
      • Color
      • Love and Acceptance
    • Colors I Never Knew Existed (2020) >
      • Editors' Note (2020)
      • Two Weeks' Notice
      • A Curious Man
      • An Eternity Swathed in Cobwebs
      • Hidden Memories: A Villanelle
      • A Better Place
      • Conscription
      • Just Breathe
      • Akko
      • The Hungry Dark
      • And Then Something Shuffled
      • Deodorants are a Girl's Best Friend
      • The Old House
      • Willow
      • Perfection
      • She Will Be Queen
      • Nothing But Space
      • a wicked thing
      • Anthony
      • Cheesecake
      • Za
      • Coco
      • Coexist
      • der böse Mann
      • Feeding
      • Catharsis
      • I HAD TO RENAME THIS POEM DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES
      • For All The Kids Who Were Told They'd Never Make It... and Believed This
      • i Will Always Love You
      • Our 4
      • Rainy Day
      • Space
      • The Ocean Cares Nothing of Man
      • Sickly Sweet Love
      • I call the eating disorder hotline
      • Bright and Sunny Day
      • Grandma in the Moon
      • Interminable Education in Seventeen Syllables
      • Macrocosmic Creation
      • Middle Class Psyche
      • My Sister
      • From a Park Bench
      • Rain
      • A Recollection of Our Memories
      • Sadie Got Me in My Feelings
      • Uranium Rose
      • When I Grow Up - Paige Rhoads
      • Who am I?
      • 49-53
    • Words Become Reality (2019) >
      • Editors' Note (2019)
      • Bear Down: A Sestina
      • Kidnapped & Killed
      • Lemonade
      • Rise
      • Someone Who always Pays
      • A Simple Story
      • The King's Battle
      • Aftermath
      • Aging Population
      • Can we still be friends?
      • Carpe Diem
      • Coffee
      • Day to Day
      • Do Not Hold me Closer, Let me Go
      • Gift of Time
      • Love Everlasting
      • A Message to the Youth
      • Peach
      • Randy
      • The River & The Earth
      • The Show Goes On
      • Summer Love
      • Sundae
      • Waiting for the Bell
      • West Coast Wishing
    • Watch Every Second (2018) >
      • Editors' Note (2018)
      • White
      • eleven eleven
      • Growing Up
      • Claustrophobia
      • The Cage
      • The Soldier's Return
      • Spacing Out
      • Depression
      • Mona Lisa
      • Childhood Cancer
      • Puberty
      • Languish
      • A Magical Ending
      • Life
      • Barter
      • Descent into Space
      • Red Water
      • The Short Film
      • Starting Line
      • And I Am From?
      • Such a Foreign Concept
      • You Say
      • My Creator
      • The Most Common Illness
      • Reflection in Time
      • Ode to My Mirror
      • Time
      • See Me
      • Consequences
      • Where I'm From
      • Unstoppable
    • Her Voice Remains (2017) >
      • Editors' Note (2017)
      • Alone in the Halls
      • Ideal Love
      • Cliff at Dusk
      • I Will Never Forget You
      • Lost
      • OCD
      • Cannibal Animal
      • A Poem for Grandpa 2
      • Solvent
      • Risky
      • Shannen and Graces’ Long Road
      • Dear Bubbles
      • A Tree in the Air
      • Losing Myself
      • ABC's Poem
      • My Glorious Flight
      • Birth Giver
      • Flat Line
      • Eternal Beauty
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  • Home
  • About
  • Staff
    • Staff 2022-23
    • Staff 2021 -22
    • Staff 2020
    • Staff 2019
    • Staff 2018
    • Staff 2017
  • Issues
    • See You in Another World (2023) >
      • Editors' Note (2023)
      • Voices of the Summer Night
      • Lightning Glut
      • All The Little Things
      • From a Distance
      • Confined
      • The Night Hours
      • A Contrapuntal for the Girl in My Dreams
      • Go Back (before they do)
      • Snippet of Thought
      • The Darkness
      • Her Nature
      • I Listen
      • Stranger In The City
      • What Music Does
      • Fallen Stranger
      • The Black Dress
    • A Fire of Words (2022) >
      • Editors' Note (2022)
      • The Floor Wallows Lower
      • Cornflowers
      • Erudite
      • That One Morning
      • mom, im afraid
      • selenophilia
      • Roses and Rainbows
      • If a poisonous snake bites itself, will it die?
      • Rochester
      • Crown of Branches
      • Stairs to the Sea
      • A Poem Written Entirely From Advertisements
      • Pyromania
      • silhouette of a bird against winter stars
      • thunderstorm in the bedroom
      • A Night in Recovery
      • sleeping gypsie
      • paper dolls&goodbyes
      • We Are Women
      • Village Air
      • Sunshine's Laughter
      • the male gaze
      • The Forensic Entomologist
      • Lacking
      • Drowning
      • Adelie
    • Create the Wonders We Dream (2021) >
      • Editors' Note (2021)
      • Zove
      • I'm Sorry
      • Fake Smile
      • My Friend the Balloon
      • Eyes Intertwined
      • Perfect
      • Only a Moment
      • A Dangerous Word
      • My Dreams
      • The Last 100 Meters
      • The Green Void (Villanelle)
      • The Whimsical Galaxy (Sestina)
      • The Silent Kindness
      • Pressure
      • Table on the Hill
      • The Yukon
      • The Shore
      • Repentance
      • Her and I
      • Infections of the Soul
      • Threads
      • Dream of a High Schooler
      • Empty
      • little flame
      • scars
      • black and white
      • The Cat
      • Joy
      • Sweet Honey Bee Stings
      • If There Were One Day
      • Delete
      • Our Hearts to Central Vietnam
      • him or Him?
      • Ocean
      • Es Llaner Beach
      • Sewn Together
      • Rain
      • Yes, I Like
      • The Legacy of the Moon
      • The Wind Whimpers
      • From Here I See
      • To Feel Clean
      • Red
      • Survival
      • Substance
      • Golden Lies
      • Midnight Tango
      • Ode to a Spleen
      • Modern Siren
      • The Night's Diamond Tears
      • Beats In Double Time
      • A Day in the Flight
      • Carved By Venus
      • Lifeline
      • Everest
      • Education
      • How Much of Reality Can Be Observed
      • What is a Spork
      • What is the difference between love and in love
      • What would you have wanted? me to say
      • Planet Caravan
      • The Journey of a Minute
      • The Circus of Scars
      • Mosaic
      • Color
      • Love and Acceptance
    • Colors I Never Knew Existed (2020) >
      • Editors' Note (2020)
      • Two Weeks' Notice
      • A Curious Man
      • An Eternity Swathed in Cobwebs
      • Hidden Memories: A Villanelle
      • A Better Place
      • Conscription
      • Just Breathe
      • Akko
      • The Hungry Dark
      • And Then Something Shuffled
      • Deodorants are a Girl's Best Friend
      • The Old House
      • Willow
      • Perfection
      • She Will Be Queen
      • Nothing But Space
      • a wicked thing
      • Anthony
      • Cheesecake
      • Za
      • Coco
      • Coexist
      • der böse Mann
      • Feeding
      • Catharsis
      • I HAD TO RENAME THIS POEM DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES
      • For All The Kids Who Were Told They'd Never Make It... and Believed This
      • i Will Always Love You
      • Our 4
      • Rainy Day
      • Space
      • The Ocean Cares Nothing of Man
      • Sickly Sweet Love
      • I call the eating disorder hotline
      • Bright and Sunny Day
      • Grandma in the Moon
      • Interminable Education in Seventeen Syllables
      • Macrocosmic Creation
      • Middle Class Psyche
      • My Sister
      • From a Park Bench
      • Rain
      • A Recollection of Our Memories
      • Sadie Got Me in My Feelings
      • Uranium Rose
      • When I Grow Up - Paige Rhoads
      • Who am I?
      • 49-53
    • Words Become Reality (2019) >
      • Editors' Note (2019)
      • Bear Down: A Sestina
      • Kidnapped & Killed
      • Lemonade
      • Rise
      • Someone Who always Pays
      • A Simple Story
      • The King's Battle
      • Aftermath
      • Aging Population
      • Can we still be friends?
      • Carpe Diem
      • Coffee
      • Day to Day
      • Do Not Hold me Closer, Let me Go
      • Gift of Time
      • Love Everlasting
      • A Message to the Youth
      • Peach
      • Randy
      • The River & The Earth
      • The Show Goes On
      • Summer Love
      • Sundae
      • Waiting for the Bell
      • West Coast Wishing
    • Watch Every Second (2018) >
      • Editors' Note (2018)
      • White
      • eleven eleven
      • Growing Up
      • Claustrophobia
      • The Cage
      • The Soldier's Return
      • Spacing Out
      • Depression
      • Mona Lisa
      • Childhood Cancer
      • Puberty
      • Languish
      • A Magical Ending
      • Life
      • Barter
      • Descent into Space
      • Red Water
      • The Short Film
      • Starting Line
      • And I Am From?
      • Such a Foreign Concept
      • You Say
      • My Creator
      • The Most Common Illness
      • Reflection in Time
      • Ode to My Mirror
      • Time
      • See Me
      • Consequences
      • Where I'm From
      • Unstoppable
    • Her Voice Remains (2017) >
      • Editors' Note (2017)
      • Alone in the Halls
      • Ideal Love
      • Cliff at Dusk
      • I Will Never Forget You
      • Lost
      • OCD
      • Cannibal Animal
      • A Poem for Grandpa 2
      • Solvent
      • Risky
      • Shannen and Graces’ Long Road
      • Dear Bubbles
      • A Tree in the Air
      • Losing Myself
      • ABC's Poem
      • My Glorious Flight
      • Birth Giver
      • Flat Line
      • Eternal Beauty
  • Blog
  • Submit
  • Contact

Barter - Emily Pottebaum

Fiction Award Winner
Picture
           Sometimes, when I was a child, I would walk along the land behind my house. I would look down and pretend the dirt beneath my shoes was not covered in the tracks of vehicles, or I would look up and pretend there weren’t power lines and housing developments a few hundred feet away. Thousands of people lived on each side, I knew, but I would pretend they all had a chance and a choice.
           Occasionally, I wept. More often, I did not.
            I still-- 
           “Yes, yes, her nose looks just perfect, I am ready.” The lady came here often. I might recognize her if she didn’t look different every time.
           “Ah, XX-12-301, belongs to building four. Medical information the same?”
           “Yes.”
           “Address the same?”
           “Yes.”
           “Employment changes?”
           “No.”
           “One moment.” I always give them time to think, to decide against their swap.
           I still live in the sa--
           The order finishes processing. “Place your thumb here and hold for three seconds.”
           She presses her thumb to the screen for just over two seconds.
           “Your order has been sent, you will be picked up for reassignment tomorrow after business hours.”
           “Good day.”
           “Good day.”
           I still live in the same house, but not the same room. My room is larger and my significance is larger. My thoughts are still only thoughts, and have still changed nothing.
           I don’t want--
           “Sir, XY-43-27 is not available for reassignment to those holding positions lower than professors.”
           “I’ve been saving tickets for months, now you’re telling me I can’t get those legs?”
           “I’m sorry sir, hierarchy rules and all. Complaints can be filed to the City Council.” Nobody ever files complaints.
            I don’t want to forget.
                        …
           You go there quite often, the Barter’s place. After all, you’ve done a lot in your life as a politician, so you definitely deserve the fine swaps made available by your ticket income and the placeholder class. Business is often quick, though there’s always a few minutes of waiting. A woman just ahead of you orders a nose trade from a young, female placeholder, already looking dreadfully malformed. You can’t help but scoff at that; the rare placeholder that is born beautiful is destined to a life becoming more and more hideous.
            Not that they don’t deserve it, though, you remind yourself as the line moves forward. Placeholders are lazy, jobless beings, so their purpose is assigned to them. Hard-working, employed people like yourself have earned this privilege of ousting their physical flaws.
           You really want those blue eyes; the hazel ones have become a bit of a bore.
            The order of the man in front of you is rejected by the Barter, on the terms that the man occupies a job with lesser value than that of a professor. You sigh, glancing at the watch wrapped around the beautiful brown skin you swapped for your own a couple years ago. Fortunately, the man does not look for satisfactory legs from a placeholder available to him, instead choosing to stomp away. Finally, it is your turn.
            The Barter has always been a bit spacey, at least as long as you’ve lived in this area. You snap your fingers in front of the unfocused eyes in front of you, and the Barter looks up.
           “I don’t want to forget.”
                      …
            A letter rests high on a metal shelf in a dark storeroom located at the back of the Barter’s place of residence and work. The edges are turning yellow with mold, and the paper itself hasn’t been touched in decades. Dust covers it in a layer so thick that it is difficult to read the ink words gracing the note’s surface:
 
To my child,

The next time you see me, I will no longer be breathing.

You have asked me many questions, and I have answered few. However, I can tell you this:
 
Life goes in a cycle, and forever will. Death exists to regulate the amount of people existing at one point. Myself, and soon you, exist to keep the balance between deserving and undeserving people, the employed and the placeholders. There is no way for a person to change their position in this world, except for the two positions of living and dead.
 
This isn’t right.
 
While most things are hereditary, sometimes I think it doesn’t seem fair that people don’t get a choice in where they are born or what they do. For the past 51 years, I’ve been sending commands to change entire physical beings of ‘placeholders’ completely against their will.
 
Do they deserve it? The answer that I know is true escapes me more and more.

I am forgetting what I believe, and I can’t take it.

Don’t forget.

 
           The name signed at the bottom is illegible.
 
           In a while, the letter will still rest high on a metal shelf in a dark storeroom located at the back of the Barter’s place of residence and work. Almost the entire paper will be yellowed with mold, and it will not have been touched in decades. Dust will cover it, so thick that only a couple words are visible enough to read.
 
           There will be a new Barter by then.
 
           This Barter will not have anything to forget.


Emily Pottebaum says, "Barter describes a future civilization in which the employed can swap body parts with the unemployed as a reward for their work." Emily is a 12th grade student from Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School.

Emily does a good job at creating a dystopian sci-fi world in which your status gives you the ability to trade physical features with another person. Editor Ranelle Irwin says, "Instead of a typical narrative, with a main character and a beginning, middle, and end, we have a series of three related pieces. The reader has to figure out how they go together. This was a bold move, and it made 'Barter' stand out from the other fiction pieces we received this year."
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