The Apothecary at the End of the World

by Justin Porter

A few hours before high sun a battered and shining airstream trailer rumbles into town pulled by two draft horses, their fetlocks coated with the dust of the roads now behind them. Seated at the buckboard, hands easy on the reigns, a woman with dirty blond hair steers the great beasts into the center of the haphazard village with its roofs of corrugated metal, rubber and salvaged plastic.

She climbs down, gentles the horses with a few words and hangs feed-bags around their velvet noses. The wide side- door cut into the trailer slams down with a clang as the chains catch.

In trickles the people of the town queue up with shotgun shells, some glass, a blanket woven of plant fibers and salvaged rope softened by the harsh sun and punishing winds of the hardpan surrounding the village.

The woman trades out unguents, tinctures and salves in small, random containers. As she deals with the villagers, the blaze of her smile joins that of the sun and the sun's rays reflecting off the airstream.

Two men sit in a bar watching, nursing drinks in sawn-down plastic bottles. The younger of the two, new to the settlement, gestures.

"What's her story then?"

"Traveling apothecary." The older one answers, "Rolls through here once a month, closest we got to doctoring."

"Can't be safe. Woman that good-looking traveling alone."

The older man laughs. "You in love, boy? Careful. With her the only pair you're likely to see are the twin bores of her over- under."

"She don't live near here?"

"They say she lives out west on the cliffs overlooking the Swollen Ocean where the only things that live are the carnivorous red algae in the water and the great iron whales. But they say it still rains out there."

"The whales are real?"

"As you and me, my young friend. The men of the north wastes hunt them. Its said The Inventors built them when the red algae ate them."

"I didn't know anybody could live out there by the cliffs."

"Just her. She's waiting."

"For what?"

"She fell in love with one of the great whalers. They say he made friends with the iron whales. Started talking to them."

"So he was fucking crazy?"

"You'd have to be crazy. Go out in a tiny boat and hunt those beasts."

The younger man grunts.

"She waits, looking at the Swollen Ocean, the red of the algae the grey of the iron whales when they broach the surface. Hoping for the whales to bare home her love. He sank below the waves when he tried to stand between the whales and the Inventors who tried to do a recall. The whales started to make little ones."

"That ain't possible. They're machines."

The older man shrugs. "What difference to us, right? No water out here big enough to wet your pinky in, let alone swim. She makes her potions and brews yellow firewater from the speaking cacti of the far desert. They say you can taste time, history and the devil's tears in every swallow. But she doesn't share, so nobody knows for sure."

The young man sits for a second and then bursts into laughter.

"Sounds like you're the one who's in love."

"And if I was?" The older man's voice turns quiet, dangerous.

The young man pauses, checking and balancing in his head. Is he that old, has speed left him, will he be more treacherous than I? This vicious math adds up to: "None of my business if you are. No offense."

"S'alight, youngster. No harm."

Business finished,the woman folds up the trailer's side door and somebody brings water for her horses. She hitches up and heads out of town when the beasts are finished drinking.

"She just gonna leave into the dark like that?" The young man asks.

"She never stays. I've seen her burn men down with that over-under. Nobody'd hurt her. She deals with all, and anybody who did try would find no welcome anywhere in the wastes. We got too many killers, not enough healers."

The young man gets off his stool and finishes his drink. After shaking the older man's hand, he checks his carbine and knife.

"Where you going, youngster?"

The young man looks at his feet, flushing red. "Figured I'd ride her backtrail a while, make sure she gets outta town safe. I'll stay outta sight."

The older man says nothing, just watches the young man leave and smiles at his departing shape. Yeah, he thinks to himself, she has that affect on a man. Then he laughs. Youngster better keep outta sight or he's gonna get shot at and screamed on, probably catch a beating if he scares the horses.

The older man laughs again and orders another drink.