Free Light Boxes by Shane Jones

like they were on fire. Crop fields and flower beds bloomed. Some of the children went blind from staring in disbelief at the sun. They had to walk around with cloth tied around their eyes. Bianca told everyone that the sun possessed this power, but even she stared at it and now saw black spots in the corners of the new sky.

Scraps of Parchment Written by the Girl Who Smells of Honey and Smoke
    Everyone smiled in New Town.
    No one mentioned the old town ever again.
    The season of February existed only in the old town.
    Caldor Clemens unhanged himself from deep in the woods and came to New Town. He walked into a shop and asked, Did I miss anything, and everyone laughed.
    Selah, frozen in the river, was seen one morning crawling from the muddy shore. She remembered nothing.
    February at the edge of town and his wife came to New Town and explained how his name was House Builder and not February. He told the story of February the Creator and his war with not only the town but with a girl who smelled of honey and smoke.
    Only Thaddeus Lowe was missing.

February
    I hear a man breathing. I hear the girl who smells of honey and smoke say,
    Â 
    put down the knife.

Thaddeus
    The girl who smelled of honey and smoke told me to hide. So I did. I watched from behind a curtain as February got up from his bed. He was a skinny man. He didn’t look scary. He said something to the girl who smelled of honey and smoke about hearing her talking to someone. A man. She denied it. He asked where the light box was, and she said that she thought he was finished with it.
    February said, No, I’m not. I don’t think I am after all.
    The girl who smelled of honey and smoke handed him a box. February uncovered it and took out a stack of parchment.
    New Town, he said. What is this.
    I heard a dog, no, a wolf, howling. Then I saw February run from the room with the stack of parchment. I heard heavy footsteps near the top of my head. Where was I.
    Â 
    FEBRUARY UPSTAIRS SCRIBBLES THADDEUS Lowe drowns. Thaddeus Lowe is attacked by bears. Thaddeus Lowe has a heart attack. Thaddeus Lowe chokes to death on an apple. Thaddeus Lowe’s mouth fills with snow.
    Â 
    Downstairs, the girl who smells
    Â 
    of honey and smoke writes, Thaddeus Lowe becomes a famous balloonist. Thaddeus Lowe has three more children and becomes New Town mayor. Thaddeus Lowe lives to be a hundred years old. Thaddeus Lowe forgets the definition of sadness.
    She hears a bear growling in the closet where Thaddeus is. She hears Thaddeus say his heart hurts. She hears Thaddeus say he is having a wonderful life, but the closet is filling with water and he doesn’t know how to swim and his mouth is filling with snow and he’s choking.
    Â 
    FEBRUARY FLIPS THROUGH THE STACK of parchment and finds a single sheet that says, THADDEUS WORE THE LIGHT BOX ON HIS HEAD WHEN HE ASCENDED IN THE BALLOON TOWARD THE TWO HOLES IN THE SKY.
    February didn’t remember writing that. He ran back downstairs and searched the room.
    Is he actually here, he asked the girl who smelled of honey and smoke. Is it actually possible that Thaddeus is here.
    The girl who smelled of honey and smoke said nothing. She stood with her hands behind her back, a pencil in one hand, parchment in the other. She had grown to resent him for what he had done to the town. She had loved him. She had hated him. February looked at the closet, the slight wavering of the fabric.
    Thaddeus trembled. He had his knife drawn. February reached his hand out and pulled the curtain to the side and felt a blade sink into his chest, stopping at the bone. Thaddeus pushed February across the room. The two spun in circles before falling to the floor. The town looked up and saw the sky shake. February hit Thaddeus on the side of the face with a closed fist. A tooth fell from the sky. The knife sank deeper, twisted to the left, then the right. The girl who smelled of honey and smoke screamed, STOP, STOP. She tried to separate