The summer weather had ended weeks before, but the fall weather hadn’t really started right away, briefly stranding the city in an oddly pleasant limbo in which it was neither stiflingly hot nor depressingly gray. Now, autumn had awoken to its purpose, and Jericho was cold, and wet, and colorless.
Through this damp and dismal city walked a man of ice. His eyes were ice blue… his skin, snow white… his hair would only be called platinum in deference to his youth. Otherwise, it would have been called white, as well.
He wore a heavy winter coat, though with no hat or gloves or other accessories of the colder season He carried a cardboard tray with three large coffees and one small tea. He whistled tunelessly, cheerlessly as he walked. Somehow, there was enough warmth in his breath to make it visible in the chill morning air.
The man made a note of some kids, spray painting on a wall. Any incursion had to be dealt with… there was no spraying, no tagging, no vandalism of any kind within tribe territory. The official governments of other cities such as New York had instituted similar policies of zero tolerance for petty offenses, with impressive results in terms of preventing serious crimes.
Preventing or cleaning up this kind of desecration was hardly the man’s job, but he’d report it anyway. Somebody would find out where the children were from, who they belonged to… if they didn’t have homes or parents, they might even be brought in. If they did have parents, the parents would be talked to. If they belonged to some other sort of family… well, everybody on the street had to respect tribe, or the whole thing fell apart.
Then he saw what it was that the children had painted… the too-familiar bent-armed cross symbol. The swastika.
He set the drink carrier down on top of a newspaper vending machine that hadn’t been stocked in years.
He would talk to these children himself.
9 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Creepy.
I’d say ‘Poor Kids’ but I have difficulty pitying anyone who Tags Swastikas…
I have a theory. Tribe is set in the Land of Oz, and “the tribe” is the magical cabal in which the wicked witches and other various people operate “wow”, the Witch of the West, and “woe”, the Witch of the East, who had a house fall on her!
The man who went to them to save his daughter will become the Wizard of Oz and will send a little girl to kill the witch of the west, “wow”. This is payback for what he sees as killing his daughter.
There have been a few other land of oz references here as well, so at least there is some foundation to go on. Of course, I could be entirely off track.
i reckon they’re just humorous stereotypes, started by Oz. like the houses falling on witches thing.
i dont see any munchkins >.>
also, YAY tribe is back!
not sure, but the Oz references could just be part of the first arc – we’ll have to see where the white-man comes in (Jack Frost?).
It might be interesting if the swastika was a poor attempt at ‘the seal on Buddha’s heart’ (try googling ‘buddhism swastika’)
I noticed a typo for you, AE…
“He wore a heavy winter coat, though with no hat or gloves or other accessories of the colder season He carried a cardboard tray with three large coffees and one small tea.”
You’ve forgotten the period defining the end of the first sentence. I’m a long time MU reader and came over here just as the first sequence qas ending. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing
Well, I can’t decide whether I am more sad or relieved that there isn’t as much of this to catch up on as there was with MU…Probably a good thing. Sleep is actually necessary.
Having said that, this really is excellent. I’m looking forward to seeing whether my theory is correct, which is that each member of the tribe is going to be taken from a different myth/story/work of fiction etc. Basically can’t wait until we learn what’s going on in this arc.
Oh, and someone mentioned its Gaiman-esque qualities a few days back…Woe really reminded me of Delirium in her good moments.
Hello your article is funny.
I like your site..
thank you again
Not that anyone’s still posting on this chapter but…
The Tribe are gypsies, who got it just as bad as the Jews under Hitler. This creepy character feels like the Tin Man if you need something from Oz. He’s heartless, and I find it in myself to pity what I think will happen to those poor misguided kids.
The swastika is a religious symbol in some eastern religions. It does not only mean “Nazi”.
“it remains widely used in Eastern and Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.”