by submission | Dec 26, 2006 | Story |
Author : LaTosha Hall
The three children stared at the table top.
“How’s it doin’ that?” the fair haired boy whispered, reaching two fingers out towards the dull metal object floating above the center of the cracked table. The only girl of the group, tall and gangly, squatted down, peering under the table.
“It’s got to be some sort of trick… you know, like magic tricks on TV,” she muttered, touching the wood of the table top from underneath. The darkhaired boy, runt of the litter, took a step back. Visibly nervous, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Told you we wasn’t supposed to be here,” he said, his voice cracking into splintered tones.
A distant hum became faintly louder as the three stared at it. The fair haired boy’s fingers lightly brushed the edge of the metal, and it bobbed slightly. The hum began to sound like audible chanting, voices from far away. The children couldn’t quite make out what it said, but the dark haired boy had had enough. He bolted through the empty rotting rooms, out into the cool evening air where only the wind was heard. About 30 feet from the broken door of the abandoned house, he turned, expecting his friends behind him. Only the gaping windows followed him. He sat down in the dirt path, waiting.
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by Stephen R. Smith | Dec 25, 2006 | Story
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer
Zero hour is struck on an instrument of time beyond the grasp of mortal men. Above the sky over the northern pole of the earth, a great creature slowly shakes off the remnants of a rather lengthy slumber.
Eight bristling legs unfold and stretch, then hoist aloft its swollen belly after having lain dormant for three hundred and sixty four revolutions of its ward below. Plucking silken web strings like a harp, the guardian navigates a path along the lines of longitude, effortlessly traversing the vast distances around the globe, from one pole to the other and back again, pausing only to check the latitudinal lines for damage or intruders.
The reflected moonlight shimmers and dances across eyes of a billion facets or more. In each of these facets, were you to get close enough to look, one would see a life reflected from the planet beneath. Through the sleeping months, the spindly spider sated itself on the love and loathing of the broken beings of the earth below, growing fat on the endless feast of emotions, and now, its web once again secured, she begins to weep. A single tear falls for each human being, tears cascading in sheets as she traverses the planet once more with meticulous care. Billions of droplets plummet to the earth as she covers every square mile of the globe, traversing the latitudes slowly so as to stay always in the hour of darkest night. As the slow moving blanket of astral droplets fall, each passes from the ethereal to the real, trailing behind a spiral of silken fiber, coiled and shimmering through the sky. Upon finally reaching the earth, each unfolds and on eight tiny legs of its own delivers its own self by following a signature trail of emotion to the place where the life of its origin sleeps. The tiny creatures negotiate a passage in through letterboxes, open windows or down cold chimneys to arrive at their predetermined destinations.
It is here that, were anyone present to see, one might question whether one was really awake, or simply in a state of childlike dreams. In each house, the tiny creature shakes rhythmically, drinking deeply of the wants and desires of their chosen one, fattening themselves on raw emotions before transforming themselves into some meaningful token to leave in their place, first spinning themselves into a cocoon of coloured silk and then metamorphasizing into some little trinket of deep personal meaning.
Having traversed the whole world again, and with her work now done, the guardian lumbers to the top of the northern pole once more, emotionally and physically spent, to slumber again, until another year has passed, and the time should come for her to awaken and restore the balance of wakeful dreaming once more.
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by submission | Dec 24, 2006 | Story |
Author : Ashley Bonkajo
The old woman had not been seen for quite a while. Nor was it unusual for a person to not be seen for months at a time. Robot or (for the very wealthy) android assistants handled the details of day to day life.
The old woman had not answered the door when a server had tried to present her with a summons to appear over the unpaid rent. Some few legal issues were conducted solely face to face.
The owner of the building sent for the police to look into the matter of the unanswered summons. An assistant was dispatched with a master key to let the police, and subsequently, the paramedics into the apartment.
They found that she had died in her sleep some weeks ago.
A smaller assistant robot was standing near the gurney crying. It was one of the earlier models with a flat screen display for facial expression. Blue animated tears spattered from down-turned crescent eyes. A larger crescent for the mouth also denoting sadness. If it had been a later model, it would have been wailing as well.
“Sergeant, I can’t find a listing for next of kin.â€
“That’s alright.â€
Looking at the small assistant which was still running the animation of tears.
“I think they already know.â€
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by submission | Dec 23, 2006 | Story |
Author : Benjamin Fischer
Basajaun sighed and rubbed the sweat from under his eyes. A shadow had fallen across reflected rays of his private sun.
“What is it you want?†he asked, blinking and groggy.
The shade resolved itself into the slim image of a woman standing over him.
“Mr. Miquel, I am Yasamin Judd,†she said. Mocha skin, some sort of South Asian. Medium of height, medium build, dressed in a generic gray skintight softsuit that could have belonged to one of a thousand extraterran concerns.
“They always send a pretty one,†Basajaun muttered.
“The spa staff granted me entrance,†Yasamin said.
Basajaun grunted and made no attempt to cover himself. Lying flat and naked on a cedar deck chair, he rubbed his belly.
“You are from Palamos?†he asked her.
“Yes, I represent the Pioneer Union of Palamos.â€
Basajaun fumbled around at his side.
“Pioneer Union. Hmph,†he said, bringing a bulb of oil up to his prominent stomach and farting out a glob onto his belly button.
“We wish to renegotiate-†Yasamin continued.
“Renegotiate,†Basajaun said, an ugly look on his face like he’d just caught a whiff of something foul.
“Yes,†said Yasamin.
“Have you read the contract?†Basajaun asked the woman. He began to rub the oil in slow circles around his paunch.
“Yes-â€
“Then there is nothing to renegotiate,†Basajaun said. “The contract explains all.â€
Yasamin made to open her mouth again, but he waved her off.
“No renegotiation,†he said. “If you had found nothing on that rock, would you come running to me? No. You would have taken my wages and been happy for them. But now that there is copper and platinum at Palamos and you grow greedy.â€
“We are not looking for a higher percentage,†Yasamin replied with patience.
“Bullshit,†Basajaun barked. “I have hired gypsies and tinkers and jews before–you always want more.â€
“Sir, the Union remains ever grateful for your employment,†Yasamin said.
“Then be silent,†he replied.
“We are,†said Yasamin. “These negotiations exist purely between us. The Union does not wish to give the appearance of labor difficulties at Palamos.â€
Basajaun rotated a pair of beady eyes onto the woman.
“So that’s your threat?†he said.
Yasamin shifted on her feet.
“What to you want?†Basajaun asked.
“Rights to the asteroid,†Yasamin said.
“Minus the heavy metals?†he replied.
“Mineral rights will be maintained per the existing contract,†she answered.
Basajaun shut his eyes and sighed.
“I don’t understand–that rock is worth shit without the platinum,†he murmured. “And that’s all you want.â€
“We want a place to call home,†Yasamin replied.
Basajaun shook his head.
“The membership of the Pioneer Union consists mostly of refugees,†started Yasamin.
“I know, I know,†said Basajaun. “Those without hope will work in the worst places for the worst pay. I know this–it is why I hired you.â€
He paused.
“Finish the extraction a month before the scheduled time and the rock is yours,†he said.
“Thank you, sir-â€
“Go away. I have to tan my ass,†Basajaun said.
Yasamin nodded politely and backed out of the sun booth. Basajaun could see that she was trying not to smile too broadly.
When she was gone, Basajaun looked up at the heavy mirror high above him. There the sun blazed away, its glare beading up the sweat on his cheeks and his chest. Almost hidden in its rays was a tiny sliver of blue and white where the ruins of a flooded Costa Brava fishing village lay blistering under a similar heat.
The deck chair creaked like the worn planks of an old trawler.
Basajaun sighed and rolled over.
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by submission | Dec 22, 2006 | Story |
Author : John Mierau
“Mr. Jerome?”
Pen and thoughts still pressed to the page, the writer looked up: a tall man in an old-fashioned suit weaved his way through the happy hour crowd.
“David Jerome. It’s really you!”
Another fan? God, why can’t people be happy with the books and leave me alone! “Uh, look, I’m right in the middle of…” David gestured down at the page.
“You write the way people think, did you know that? Almost like you read people’s minds.” He reached out a long-fingered hand. “I’m Jack.”
David didn’t take the hand. “Jack, I’m really -“
“Would you like to? Read minds?”
David snorted. “I don’t write that kind of fiction.”
The tall man shook his head. “‘I’m not making fun. I know… how much it hurt when Prudence left, how scared you are. I can fix that.”
David shrank away as the stranger rubbed salt where Pru had left him raw.
“I know… your publisher scares you. He yells at you, wants the novel you owe him. Short stories are a waste to him.”
David’s knuckles whitened around the pen. The tip cut, slicing his palm.
Jack smiled at David again. “Sorry. I bet your brain’s about to burst…” The stranger reached across the table, ran two cool fingers across David’s temple. David let it happen, couldn’t think what to say or do to stop it.
“You got into people’s heads better than anyone,” Jack whispered. “It’ll all be clear soon. I wish I could stay, but they’ll be coming…”
David watched Jack rise, unable to speak, divining greater meaning in each word than sound could carry.
“If it wasn’t for you, David, I’d have never known Mystery!” Jack giggled, backing away from the table. “Now all mysteries will be, heh, open books to you.”
David didn’t see Jack leave as the world roared in like exploding bombs, like a lover’s whisper.
David knew…
The bartender didn’t notice the pretty blonde who’d bought her blue dress just for him, after he’d chased off the drunk who spoke ugly words to her and clawed under her skirt.
David knew…
The old man in the corner tried not to be angry. His son hadn’t shown. The boy always sent his mother flowers, and he’d paid to fix the roof last summer. He felt horrible for wondering if the boy remembered today would have been his mother’s birthday.
David knew…
The guy on the stool by the door had slaved six years to pay for the ring in his hand, and the down-payment on the house Shelly loved. He couldn’t wait any longer: he’d pop the question tonight!
The words… David had gotten them almost right. He looked down at the page and his ink-stained fingers; at the words so close to truth and now so empty.
Across the room, the blonde’s insides shook as the bartender noticed her dress.
David dropped the pen. It fell to the floor as the writer put his head in his hands and wept.
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