The flicker, p.19
The Flicker, page 19
“Really, really,” Rose agrees.
“Wow.” Millie shakes her head. “So, it’s just … it’s just over?”
“No, you goof. It’s just beginning.”
They reach the edge of a field, and Millie has to blink a bunch to make sure her eyes aren’t lying to her.
“It’s … green.”
“Sure is.”
There’s wildflowers and berry bushes and leaves on trees. It’s green.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?”
“Part of it.” Rose crouches down next to the chair and points. “Look down there.”
Millie squints. Down at the other end of the garden, there’s a whole group of people running around in the sun. “The Lost Boys!”
“Yeah. And look who’s with them.”
“Is that … is that Ben?”
“Sure is. He was inside when I got there. And the one in black? That’s Alex. The Alex.”
“No way!”
“Way way.”
“And who’s … who’s that?” Millie tilts her head forward, to an older man she don’t recognize.
“That…” Rose grins. “Is Olly’s daddy.”
Millie just about falls out of her chair. “You’re jokin’ .”
“Nope. He was goin’ up and down the East Coast, savin’ lives and lookin’ for Oliver, when Grandma found him. He’s the one who got you all stitched up. You’d probably be dead if it weren’t for our vet.” Rose sighs, a happy kinda sigh. “And you should hear how he brags on his son.”
Millie don’t think she’s ever gon’ stop cryin’ now. She sucks in a breath, fingers twisting in front of her. “Is … is there anyone … else?”
“No.” Rose squeezes her shoulder. No one has to say it out loud. She knows they’re both thinkin’ about the newspaper clipping, the mug shot—about Millie’s dad, still alive on death row the day the world ended. Maybe somewhere out there right now, wondering if the baby he never met is still alive. “No, but there will be. Anyone’s alive and on the side of the good guys, and we’re gon’ find them.”
Millie threads her fingers with Rose’s and squeezes back.
The sun glints off the metal of the wheelchair, and the flash gets Zoe’s attention. Down across the garden, she looks up and spots her and screams. The others turn, and pretty soon all of them start running toward her.
Millie smiles so big it hurts, but she can’t stop.
Oliver reaches her first and throws his arms around her, but the others aren’t far behind. Soon, everyone’s in a big pile on top of her, and Millie can’t tell if she’s laughing or crying harder.
The world’s over. They ain’t ever going back to what it was.
But they can go forward. And, together, they get to decide what the future looks like.
Together, Millie and her family ain’t just gon’ survive. They’re gon’ live.
Rose starts pushing at people’s shoulders after a minute. “Y’all, now, c’mon, use your tiny brains. She almost died!”
But it was worth it, Millie thinks. It was all worth it.
“Hey, y’all, one question!” Grandma’s voice calls out from behind them. “This ain’t the first time he’s done this, is it?”
Noah straightens up at Millie’s side and looks over her shoulder. “Well, see, now I feel bad for making fun of him.”
Rose wheels Millie around to face their grandma.
Down the dirt path leading from her tent to the field, she’s hovering behind a newly-awake Sammy—and he’s standing?
The box in her belly, long since unlatched, falls apart at the hinges entirely. And on top of the remnants it leaves behind, her baby brother takes his very first steps, right toward her.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BEFORE ALL ELSE, I must acknowledge the First Peoples whose land this book was written on—the Seminole, Lenni-Lenape, and Puyallup people. I am eternally grateful to the elders living and passed, from these tribes and Indigenous cultures across the world, who have protected their lands since time immemorial. No matter how grim the climate crisis grows, I will not give in to hopelessness—because I know Native medicine, decolonization, and Land Back are the ways forward.
I am extraordinarily thankful to my editor, Rachel, for championing this book in the most calculating Virgo way possible. Our every conversation leaves me feeling like we’re going to take over the world. Truthfully, I am ecstatic to work with the entire team at Feiwel and Friends. You have made my literal dreams come true. I can’t believe we’re just getting started.
Forever and always thanking Victoria Marini and Lee O’Brien. Y’all just get me. That’s its own kind of magic.
Intensely grateful to the friends and chosen family whose time and care make everything I do possible, including getting any writing done at all.
And for Fin. Everything I make is yours—but this one is extra yours. Every day, I watch you become more and more of your own person. The world has no idea what it’s in for. I love you.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The Flicker takes place in a world almost identical to our own, in the aftermath of a major climate disaster. While the book is not exactly contemporary, would you consider it to be fantasy? Why or why not?
2. The main characters, Millie and Rose, are stepsiblings with very different personalities. They often interpret the same situations in very different ways. For example, the way they each feel about the Sanctuary at the start of the book. What other moments can you remember the two being unable to see eye-to-eye? Why do you think they both felt the way they did in those moments?
3. Millie and Rose only decide to leave the tater hole because both their parents are dead and they need to try and find people who can help them. How do you think things would have gone differently if one or both of their parents had survived? Do you think they would have ended up in a similar place at the end, or somewhere else entirely?
4. In Chapter 4, with food supplies running low, Rose suggests they eat the mushrooms in the woods. Millie says they can’t because she isn’t sure whether they’re safe. She also says, to herself, “You are a caretaker of the land. Your people have lived here since time immemorial. You should know this.” What do you think Millie was thinking and feeling during this scene? What do you think it has to do with her grandma?
5. In Chapter 8, Rose feels like a wild animal—“like she ain’t a girl at all, like she was supposed to be born with fangs and claws and prowl the shadows of her holler, part animal and part urban legend.” Where do you think those feelings come from? Do you think Rose still feels this way by the end of the book?
6. Two of the book’s most central characters cannot talk to anyone and their actions never significantly move the plot forward—the dog, Corncob, and the baby, Sammy. How do these characters still have an impact on the overall story? What moments stand out to you as their most important scenes?
7. In Chapter 11, a guard at the Hive shoots and kills a mother black bear. What can we learn about the culture of the Hive from the way the guards talk about that moment? How is that contrasted by the reaction of everyone watching on the bus?
8. Many times throughout the story, the characters make a lot of assumptions about each other that often don’t pan out to the truth. Can you think of any examples of this? Do you think there’s an intended lesson from all these moments? If so, what?
9. Many Indigenous peoples believe that all living things on Earth are relatives. This idea that family is something more than the people you share blood or a last name with is threaded through this story. Other than the sibling relationship between Millie and Rose, can you think of other examples of unconventional family relationships between the characters? What do you think the book is trying to say about what it means to be family?
10. At the end of the book, Millie, Rose, and all the others are in the Sanctuary and reunited with Millie’s grandmother. There is a lot of hope for the future that didn’t exist at the beginning, and things feel safer than they did before—but nothing is really fixed. They’re still living in an apocalyptic wasteland, after all. Do you think The Flicker has a happy ending? Why or why not?
Thank you for reading this Feiwel & Friends book.
The friends who made THE FLICKER possible are:
Jean Feiwel, Publisher
Liz Szabla, VP, Associate Publisher
Rich Deas, Senior Creative Director
Anna Roberto, Executive Editor
Holly West, Senior Editor
Kat Brzozowski, Senior Editor
Dawn Ryan, Executive Managing Editor
Celeste Cass, Production Manager
Kim Waymer, Production Manager
Emily Settle, Editor
Rachel Diebel, Editor
Foyinsi Adegbonmire, Editor
Brittany Groves, Assistant Editor
Samira Iravani, Designer
Jacob Sammon, Production Editor
Follow us on Facebook or visit us online at mackids.com.
Our books are friends for life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
H.E. EDGMON is an author of queer speculative fiction across genres. Once a stray dog in the rural south, he now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest with a family of his own design. Haunted and hopeful, his work aims to offer levity without flinching from hard truths. In his writing and his daily life, H.E. will always prioritize the pursuit of an Indigenous future, the safety of our most vulnerable, and making a terrible joke whenever possible. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2024 by H.E. Edgmon
A Feiwel and Friends Book
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
mackids.com
All rights reserved.
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Edgmon, H. E., author.
Title: The Flicker / H.E. Edgmon.
Description: First edition. | New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2024. | Audience: Ages 8–12. | Audience: Grades 7–9. | Summary: With their parents dead and supplies running low after a solar flare scorched the Earth, stepsisters Millie and Rose leave home with their infant half brother and dog Corncob in search of Millie’s grandma, a Seminole elder.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023040608 | ISBN 9781250873972 (hardcover)
Subjects: CYAC: Orphans—Fiction. | Stepsisters—Fiction. | Environmental disasters—Fiction. | Survival—Fiction. | Grandmothers—Fiction. | Seminole Indians—Fiction. | Indians of North American—Fiction. | LCGFT: Apocalyptic fiction. | Climate fiction. | Novels.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.E274 Fl 2024 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023040608
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First print edition 2024
eBook edition 2024
eISBN 978-1-250-87398-9
H.E. Edgmon, The Flicker
