Strangers Among Us

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Julie E. Czerneda

Who are strangers?

People we don’t yet know. We spot them, cued to their difference from the familiar-to-us by their look, by how they walk or talk or dress. We prepare for each new encounter, for you never know—do you?—with strangers.

Strangers. The harried mother who spares a fleeting smile . . . the tattooed boarder who gallantly holds the door . . . the executive bickering with thin air . . . the teen moving to music only she can hear . . . the blue-faced football fan who weaves and waves to everyone around.

Strangers. The child who doesn’t meet your eye or smile back . . . the ancient who rocks and spits . . . the man who stalks by, swearing at passing cars . . . the huddled silent shape in a doorway, eyes fixed on air.

Strangers.

Our reaction, of course, depends on many things: the situation, our experience and expectations, how they seem to us at first glance. It’s instinctive and often necessary to make a snap judgment: ignore, avoid, or greet. We don’t come tagged with our inner truths. We can’t tell by looking if that angry-looking stranger is angry at us—

Or at something only she can see.

Scary either way, isn’t it? Such a disquieting awareness, that the mind can be ill. We know what to do about gashed skin or child’s fever. We can see for ourselves when a wound is healed or a child is over a flu. The mind though. It’s secretive, complex, powerful. When it’s sick, we flinch, not knowing what to do, unable to see. There’s nothing familiar to guide us.

Which is why stories like the ones gathered in this astonishing anthology are important. They put us inside the heads of strangers. They make us feel those inner truths. What is it like to be angry or afraid, to hear voices, to be unable to relate to another human being, to struggle and slip and struggle and wish—above all—to be understood. To strive when it’s our minds—not crippled limbs or other ills of the flesh—that betray and hobble us. To do our best when society, family, friends ignore or dismiss us.

To triumph, as in these stories, despite that terrible solitude. Or . . . because of it.

As with any encounter, there’s the chance you’ll meet a stranger here who proves familiar; maybe someone you already know. Maybe yourself.

If you do, toss away experience and expectation. Ignore the differences. Dismiss pity and any preconception of weakness.

Instead see the potential. Feel the passion.

For we are all strangers to one another, locked inside our minds, healthy or not quite. We’re each the unique sum of advantage, disadvantage, and living with both. As you read these imaginative, original stories, you’ll discover what matters most of all:

What we choose to be.

—Julie E. Czerneda, Severn, 2016

Author of The Clan Chronicles from DAW Books