"The New Coast," by Paul Yoon

"We were all neighbors in one of the many settlements that had sprouted up in the city, and we had been waiting there for everything to be rebuilt. Or that was what the officials kept telling us-to stay where we were so that they could begin restoring the city. But no one seemed convinced that the city would ever be restored, and this was a big reason people came and went, looking for someplace better."

"By then, my brother and I had passed through enough places-we had been wandering for two years, from one settlement to another-to know that the community here was better than most. Neighbors tried to be good neighbors. It was peaceful. There were plenty of supplies to fix roofs. We lived on a hill, and if you looked past the rubble you had a view of the river, which Mrs. S said looked pretty much the same as before to her."

The narrator is twelve, almost thirteen, and has a brother five years older. They live in a small central city near the western coast after the war. A rebuilt train line allows travel to the coast if one can afford it. Neighbors hear news of access and begin calling the destination the "new coast," imagining new buildings, rooms, and the beach. The brothers live in a settlement that grew after the war and are told by officials to wait for restoration. Many doubt restoration and move often; the brothers had wandered two years but found this community comparatively better. Mrs. S, a local, treats them kindly and does not ask about their origins or parents.

Read at The New Yorker