The Eleventh Plague

Content Warning: This novel features racism and racial slurs toward Chinese people, as well as violence, abuse, and enslavement.

Stephen sits and watches over his grandfather’s burlap-wrapped corpse as his father tries to dig a burial hole. Overwhelmed, he goes to the edge of the hill and stares at the ruins of an old mall and McDonald’s. He thinks about his grandfather’s hand, limp with death, which used to hit him and his father whenever they did anything wrong. Stephen gathers firewood and returns to his father; he builds a fire and helps his father lower the body into the grave. His father refuses to take off the corpse’s ring even though the gold is extremely valuable. After covering the body, Stephen’s father collapses sobbing, and he and Stephen sit together and comfort each other. Stephen’s father reassures him that nothing will ever change.

Stephen rearranges his pack in the morning, struggling with the instinctive fear of his grandfather hitting him for doing it wrong. He puts his only book—a copy of The Lord of the Rings—at the top since he no longer must hide it from his grandfather. He and his father and their donkey, Paolo, begin to travel again, leaving the burial mound behind them.