by Monica Valentinelli

Tailfeather is a story set in a dystopian future I developed some time ago on a computer that's now considered a dinosaur. I built the world based on three concepts: overpopulation, politics and economics. Then, I spun them out several hundred years into our future to come up with an expansive setting where I have multiple stories, a novel and a game lurking about.

At the heart of this story, is a character's struggle with her identity. It's a story about desperation, about family, about patriotism and loyalty. About what it means to be human and what happens when that's taken away.

It's also a story about the freedom to choose.

When I sat down to write Tailfeather I did not craft the tale with these themes in mind. I imagined a place where there are so many people the food has to be rationed. I pictured a world where some societies have split in two, where half their population operates at night and the other half during the day. I thought about what people -- women, especially -- would to do survive. What would they be willing to do for food? Shelter? Love?

Then, I wondered what a government would do to ensure their population survived. In my setting, the geographical boundaries have changed. The United States is no more, replaced by the United Federation of States where parts of Canada and Mexico have been taken over. Each "state" operates as an independent city-state and is loosely connected by three, regional vice presidents that report back to Washington. Los Angeles, where part of this story takes place, is gated to protect the "haves" from the "have nots." There are strict rules within the U.F.S. for housing, clothing and food based on wealth. In this future, the population is ninety-nine percent poor and one percent rich and yet they still manage to survive. Whether or not they live well is an entirely different story, for even simple things like colorful dresses and technology are not owned or used by everyone.

While these are pretty big concepts, the story itself is short and is focused on a single character named Maria who we meet in her hospital room. To survive, she agreed to a series of invasive surgeries believing she'd be transformed into a cybernetic swan. Why a swan? Well, you'll have to read the story and found out.

Her life, her beliefs and her decisions are tied back into her experiences in a way that's uniquely personal to her and devastating to those around her. It's Maria who helped me make this world small and digestible, allowing you to peek into this wider world. It's Maria who struggles to make sense with her homelessness, her family and her role in society. Even though her troubles are legitimate, this dystopian world is so overpopulated that death is often a welcome relief. So what choice does she have?

I hope you will do me the honor of reading Tailfeather in Apexology: Science Fiction & Fantasy. For after you hear Maria's tale, there are seventeen other stories for you to read by some very, fine authors.