The Survival Artist

Is life always perfect when you have enough glitter-stones? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Eve is a skilled hunter of “glitter-stones,” which magically take away the pain of hunger, loneliness, and cold. She has learned to see only the glitter-stones, and has even learned to see through her surroundings and other people to see only them. One day she sees a stranger on the splashing in the waves of the beach with no glitter-stones, and follows the stranger back to their camp. She steals the stranger’s bag, but it only contains “flat pieces of birch bark” with portrait drawings on them, including hers. She runs away, and as she runs, she sees the world around her for the first time.