I don’t think I’ve talked about a story by Octavia E. Butler since “The Book Of Martha” a while back. So, today let’s look at a story that was also published in the Bloodchild collection: “Crossover.”

We start off with a factory worker named Jane. Jane is not having a particularly good time of it, and a lot of it has to do with her job. She hasn’t had a raise in years, the other workers don’t like her because she’s more efficient than they are, and the higher ups have been actively screwing her over for a while. So what’s her solution to this?

Alcohol, of course. So she heads down to the liquor store where she’s hit on by a wino and taunted by a group of teenagers. She sees someone else, though; someone that she knows.

That someone is her former partner, who is supposed to be in jail for assault and with whom it’s implied she had a bit of a tumultuous relationship.

Jane’s not terribly happy to see him, but is also super lonely so she takes him home anyway. They bang, and then the partner asks her about the sleeping pills she kept in her cabinet, implying that she’s suicidal. She tells him that she flushed them down the toilet, because she decided that she would rather live without him. He, with a smirk on his face, asks what she’d do now if she changes her mind.

This prompts Jane to throw an ashtray at him and start sceaming for him to get out. Which in turn prompts one of her neighbors to go in and check on her. She tries to convince the neighbor that she’s all right, and the neighbor responds by inviting her over to talk, since Jane seems lonely.

Jane refuses and manages to get the neighbor to leave before grabbing her coat to leave herself, slamming the door in her partner’s face. She walks back to the liquor store, where she shares a drink with the wino before heading back to his place. As she looks behind her, she sees her partner again. She takes a drink, then waits for him to go away.

This is kind of an interesting story for Butler, since there aren’t really any sci-fi or fantastical elements here. It’s a tale that’s largely grounded in reality, albeit filtered through Jane’s point of view.

See, the story strongly hints that her partner’s actually still in jail or otherwise gone, and she’s hallucinating that he’s there. The afterword in the collection actually confirms this: Butler flat out states that Jane suffers from hallucinations and is an alcoholic. This seems to be backed up by the neighbor not seeming to notice that Jane’s partner is in the room, with the comment that Jane seems lonely.

It is pretty hard to be lonely if you’re not the only one there, after all.

There’s also some commentary here on how work can be alienating. Butler says in the afterword that Jane’s experiences are somwhat based on her own, having worked some pretty shitty jobs in the past. Jane does seem to be, as the neighbor suggests, pretty lonely. Part of this could be her partner’s jail sentence, but a large part appears to be because of how she’s shunned at her job.

So, that was “Crossover.” What do you think? Is the partner real? Leave your thoughts in the comments below,and I will see you next time.

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