This story is part of the Himal Fiction Fest 2025, a showcase of original Southasian speculative fiction.
Also read: Himal Fiction Fest 2025: Southasian speculative fiction
Editorial Note: This short story draws inspiration from Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha and the director Andrei Tarkovsky’s films Stalker and Solaris, the latter based on the eponymous novel by Stanisław Lem.
THE FERRYMAN listened to the water. It spoke in whispers and groans, in the gentle lapping against the plastic beneath his feet and in the deep currents that pulled at the world suspended below. The ocean had changed, but it still spoke to those who knew how to listen. The Ferryman was among the few who did.