Short Stories 366:241 — “Reyna,” by David Dean

[image error]This latest jaunt into Crime Travel, a collection where crime stories feature time travel, has a fascinating premise for the time travel itself: a girl realizes she can sort of pull herself out of herself and float around the house, seeing things she couldn’t possibly see, and over time realizes her abilities go further than that, to sharing the point of view of a nearby cardinal, and to, eventually, diving into the past and taking over her own body with the knowledge of what’s to come.

I feel like I need to put a content warning on this one, in that it takes the “disability superpower” trope approach as well: Reyna gains the ability after an accident she doesn’t entirely recall, which has since left her using a wheelchair. The wheelchair is also a monolith in the story that Reyna has a very negative association with, which… well. Given the somewhat recency of her accident, I can see it, but at the same time, I struggle with mobility devices presented as limitations rather than accessibility. She also feels wholeheartedly like she is a burden to her family, but again, Reyna is a child and this is somewhat recent, so. Consider yourself forewarned, the story also falls under “magical cure” as a whole, so I’m not sure I’d suggest disabled readers give this one a go.

The crime comes into play when Reyna decides to revisit the time of her accident to prevent it, and learns her collision-induced amnesia over what happened covers something far, far worse than she knew. The end result involves her not only trying to stop her own accident, but also to attempt to deliver some justice—or at least prevent future harm. This shift in narrative from her attempt to stop something from happening to her to instead stop potentially awful things that have happened since was a nice touch.