Free The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year - Volume Eight by Jonathan Strahan [Editor] Page A

working, aren't they?" Latifa revved her engine.
    Fatema refused to be distracted. "They use batteries. You can't run anything big with batteries."
    "Maybe I brought some bigger batteries from Iran."
    "Show me," Fatema pleaded.
    Latifa opened her mouth to start explaining, her mind already groping for some simple metaphors she could use to convey how the current buckets worked. But... our cousin came from Iran and buried giant batteries in the ground? Did she really want that story spreading out across the neighbourhood?
    "I was joking," Latifa said.
    Fatema frowned. "But then how ...?"
    Latifa shrugged. Fatema's brothers, robbed of their cartoons, were heading towards them, demanding to join in the game.
    * * *
    T he bus station was stifling. Latifa would have been happy to dispense a few parting hugs and then take her seat, but her cousins didn't do quiet farewells.
    "I'll be back at Eid," she promised. "With Amir."
    "That's months away!" Soraya sobbed.
    "I'll phone every week."
    "You say that now," Zohra replied, more resigned than accusing.
    "I'm not leaving forever! I'll see you all again!" Latifa was growing tearful herself. She squatted down and tried to kiss Fatema, but the girl turned her face away.
    "What should I bring you from Mashhad next time?" Latifa asked her.
    Fatema considered this. "The truth."
    Latifa said, "I'll try."
    3
    "I did my best to argue your case," Ms Daneshvar told Latifa. "I told the principal you had too much promise to waste. But your attendance records, your missed assignments..." She spread her hands unhappily. "I couldn't sway them."
    "I'll be all right," Latifa assured her. She glanced up at the peg that held the key to the chemistry lab. "And I appreciate everything you did for me."
    "But what will you do now?"
    Latifa reached into her backpack and took out one of the small ceramic pots Fashard had sent her. Not long after the last spools of wire had left Kandahar, two men had come snooping on Ezatullah's behalf – perhaps a little puzzled that Fashard didn't seem quite as crushed as the terms of the deal should have left him. He had managed to hide the winders from them, but he'd had to think up an alibi for the kilns at short notice.
    "I'm going to sell a few knickknacks in the bazaar," Latifa said. "Like this." She placed the pot on the desk and made as if to open it. When she'd twisted the lid through a quarter-turn it sprang into the air – only kept from escaping by three cotton threads that remained comically taut, restraining it against the push of some mysterious repulsive force.
    Ms Daneshvar gazed in horror at this piece of useless kitsch.
    "Just for a while!" Latifa added. "Until my other plans come to fruition."
    "Oh, Latifa."
    "You should take a closer look at it when you have the time," Latifa urged her. "There's a puzzle to it that I think you might enjoy."
    "There are a couple of magnets," Ms Daneshvar replied. "Like pole aimed at like. You were my brightest student...and now you're impressed by this ?" She turned the pot over. "Made in Afghanistan. Patent pending." She gave a curt laugh, but then thought better of mocking the idea.
    Latifa said, "You helped me a lot. It wasn't wasted." She stood and shook her former teacher's hand. "I hope things go well for you."
    Ms Daneshvar rose and kissed Latifa's cheek. "I know you're resourceful; I know you'll find something. It just should have been so much more."
    Latifa started to leave, but then she stopped and turned back. The claims had all been lodged, the details disclosed. She didn't have to keep the secret any more.
    "Cut one thread, so you can turn the lid upside-down," she suggested.
    Ms Daneshvar was perplexed. "Why?"
    Latifa smiled. "It's a very quick experiment, but I promise you it will be worth it."

EFFIGY NIGHTS
    Yoon Ha Lee
    Yoon Ha Lee's works have appeared in Clarkesworld , Lightspeed , Beneath Ceaseless Skies , and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction . Her short story collection Conservation of