Coin-Operated Boy

By Aia Järvinen

Cora knew no life outside the circus. That’s what they called themselves—the circus—that motley company of human survivors. It was just the humans now, no animals. She would’ve liked to see an animal. The animals had been the first to die. They’d all gone mad one day, incapable of maintaining their natural instincts. Bees and birds had stopped pollinating plants. The plants had died, then the animals who fed on those plants died, then the animals who fed on those animals died, until only humans remained. Then came the Big Whimper, and most of the humans died. She didn’t remember any of that. It was before her time.