Shards and Shimmers

By now, The Calamity had enveloped twenty-two percent of Earth. Its spread was uneven yet relentless. Certain portions jutted out like shards that ebbed and flowed with subtle force, while other portions moved like a curtain of solid void. Gravitational anomalies began to intensify beneath its void. Stones hovered in the area several feet off the ground. Rain fell but didn’t touch the ground. Reality was unraveling. In the midst of this, the Shards began to appear.

The first reported case took place in Croatia, where The Calamity had now reached a few days prior. As the black abyss blanketed the sky and blocked out the stars, reality began to tear at its seams in tiny instances. It began as sounds echoing that shouldn’t be there. Sometimes voices returned from days and ages past. People reported seeing shimmers of bodies drifting through the streets and walls in full corporal form, then vanishing. They weren’t ghosts; they were present, complete beings, snapped into the present day from the past as time collapsed on itself.

Scientists tried to create an explanation. If relativity meant gravity could treat time like a rubber band that stretched and receded, then The Calamity seemed to be blending time into a soup where the present and the past were crashing into one another. Whispers of the Shards began to spread across the globe as more instances began to happen in other cities and countries. Viral videos spread across social media as images of people from times long lost would briefly flash into the world around them, but were unable to be touched or engaged with. It was as though the people from the Shards didn’t realize they were in another time, and were merely existing in their time, but the present was able to see it unfold.

There was no reason or consistency to the Shards or Shimmers. Some would appear for only the blink of an eye. Some would appear for seconds or full moments. They would pass right through the present residents and structures. Priests and monks deemed that they were not spirits, merely echoes of people and animals who were no longer alive. It was the most comprehensive glimpse into the past humans had ever experienced.

Kureha was lying in the grass in the Hirosaki botanical garden watching a recently posted video of a Shimmer in India that April. The friend group had been in Honshu for a week now and had made their way to Hirosaki to see the late-blooming cherry blossoms. It had always been less crowded than more common tourist destinations like Kyoto, but the blooms surrounding the ancient castle nearby made Kureha wonder if they would ever run into a Shimmer or if the Shards would happen more frequently the closer it got to The End.

The duality of time’s passing hit her with a humorous rush as she watched Kai and Arata approaching with fresh ice cream in the cone, which they had just procured at the nearby stand. No one in ancient times or even a hundred years ago could have readily available ice cream whenever they wanted, yet now here she was, even in the face of extinction, able to have it at a moment’s notice.

“All they had were pistachio, strawberry, and salted caramel,” said Arata as he sat beside Kureha on the blanket that had been placed on the ground.

“Interesting combination,” chuckled Kureha.

“Must be less popular flavors, so they had supplies left. Can’t imagine there’s a lot of vanilla left to make,” said Kai.

“Awww, a world with no more vanilla ice cream. Truly the end,” sighed Kureha.

“Well, I’ll take strawberry,” said Arata.

“I guess pistachio?” said Kureha.

“Hell yeah, I love salted caramel,” cheered Kai as he handed off the other remaining cone to Kureha.

Thousands of picturesque sakura trees surrounded them wtih gorgeous blooms as they ate their cooled treats. In the distance, a young couple walked along the castle wall’s edge in kimono and Kureha thought to herself that in a place like Japan, there might be Shimmers but they wouldn’t even know. Between the traditions and rapid modernity, Japan was a place where the past and present crashed into one another every day.

The friend group was waiting for the sun to go down so that they could wander the park when the castle and sakura trees were lit up in full display at night. The park had more than 50 varieties of sakura trees, including somei yoshino, weeping cherry trees, and yae-zakura. Kureha had already snapped several dozen photos of the impermanent beauty that engulfed them in white and pink.

Shiona and Rin had broken away from the group and were walking along one of the castle’s labyrinthine moats. They found themselves on a bridge with red-painted railing that looked out at the castle’s steep foundation that descended into the water below. As they walked, they saw Riku alone up ahead, sitting on a bench, looking at the massive, aged structure. He seemed very tired, but the aura around him seemed as though he wanted to be left alone. Shiona and Rin paused to watch him for a moment. Rin noticed Shiona’s face change slightly as she gazed ahead.

“What do you think he’s thinking about?” Shiona asked Rin.

“With Riku, you never know,” grinned Rin.

“He always was the most brooding and mysterious of us,” agreed Shiona.

“You like him, don’t you?” asked Rin.

It surprised Shiona. She turned to her friend as she confronted the thought herself.

“No lies anymore, remember? Even to ourselves,” said Rin.

Shiona paused to reflect.

“I think so. I think I’ve always liked both him and Kai. And Arata, too, but don’t worry, I know y’all are right for one another,” Shiona said with a grin.

“To be honest, I felt the same. They’re all such good guys. Arata was always first for me, though. He was always who I felt most drawn to,” said Rin.

“Remember the matsuri in middle school?” asked Shiona.

“Our first kiss. I never thanked you for bowing out to get snacks,” laughed Rin.

“Always the matchmaker!” chuckled Shiona.

“Well, why don’t you at least tell him how you feel?” asked Rin.

Shiona shook her head in acceptance and rejection.

“Maybe another time. I’m enjoying things as they are now,” said Shiona as she glanced back at Riku, who had not moved at all on his bench.

Over at his bench, Riku sat marveling at the stonework of the castle foundation that had been there for generations. He had always been fascinated by the shogun period for his country, but not in a masculine worship of the violence or old ways. It seemed like a cautionary tale to him that he had never wanted to be a part of. Someone like him would have been cut down by a katana or died from an infection as a child. As he sat there thinking of dying as a child in the Edo period, he heard children’s laughter nearby.

A moment of terror struck Riku as he sat there, fearing that a Shimmer of children might be nearby.

“Oh crap, please not ghost kids,” he laughed to try and calm himself.

To his relief, two children ran up to him in modern school uniforms. They were not Shimmers, merely on a field trip. One of the children approached Riku and saw his cane.

“I like your stick!” said the child.

“My grandfather has one like that!” said another.

“Really? We must shop at the same store!” chuckled Riku as the boys sat beside him on the bench.

“What are y’all doing out here? On a school trip?” asked Riku.

“Yes!” said the first boy.

“Where’s the rest of your class?” asked Riku.

“We don’t know,” said the other boy.

“You don’t know?” asked Riku.

“Yeah, I think we’re lost,” said the child as he smiled up at Riku.

“Lost?…” repeated Riku.