by Duncan Shields | Aug 31, 2015 | Story |
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer
I miss having Jupiter in the sky.
I know Earth is humanity’s homeland and a pilgrimage to her is on everyone’s bucket list along with seeing Olympus Mons, the Ganymede Borealis and Titan’s cryovolcanoes in person. However, I am underwhelmed.
This coffee shop is serving the purest coffee I’ve ever had. One sip of it has set my heart galloping and I feel like I’ll taste coffee for days. It would have cost a year’s salary back home on Europa. The unfiltered air here is stinky, layered, and confusing to my nose. Being outside without a faceshield makes me nervous on a bone-deep cultural level. The whole setup here seems oversaturated with smells and tastes and to have a complete lack of safety. People are walking around practically naked because there’s never been a violent, sudden decompression in their lives. It gives them all an air of terrifying naiveté.
Europa has no mountains. I should have gone to Earth’s prairies, I guess. Instead I’m in Switzerland, in what Terrans calls Europe. I just assumed that Europa and Europe would be similar. Rookie mistake, I guess.
“The food on my Europa is bland. The coffee is weak. The air is boring.” That’s what I keep hearing from other tourists. But to me, the air and food here seems unnecessarily complex. Designed to confuse and overwhelm. All native Earthers seem a little crazy to me with their bright eyes and their short attention spans. I think it’s the rich input of what they consume. Too many distractions.
But I guess they need it because the plain blue of the daytime sky makes me feel like this planet is unfinished. Like it’s in a blue room. I have no perspective when I look up. It’s unsettling.
‘Jupiter watches’ was our moon’s Latin motto. The eye swinging around to monitor our lives, taking up so much of the sky. No interference but it was keeping a record. It was the basis of our religion. Here on Earth, it feels like no one’s watching.
Alone. That was it. The Earth felt alone.
One tiny pathetic moon haunting the night time while the Terran light pollution erased most of the stars and then the powerful sun bleaching out the entire universe during the day. No Jupiter hogging half of the sky, no family of moonlets, moons, and halfteroids peppering every afternoon, morning and sunset. No daytime moonstellations telling young lovers when to kiss or gamblers when they were at their luckiest.
Earth’s history had something called a sundial that stood out to me as a symbol of the tedium here. It was a flat, metal circle with a triangle set perpendicular to it, casting one single shadow to measure the march of time by tracking the one plain light traveling across the sky. Like a bare bulb in a blue room.
Earth and the moon had the simplicity of a hydrogen atom. Like a child’s toy. A very basic protostructure of what a planetary microsystem could be. A blueprint to build on. I really didn’t like the crushing monotony of it and I longed for the majesty and complexity of my home sky.
I could watch Jupiter’s swirls forever, meditating on the storms. I remember reading that most people on Earth chose blue as their favorite colour. What a drab reminder of loneliness and simplicity. On Europa we had names for shades of orange, red, pink, and brown they didn’t even have here.
I mean, I guess I’m glad I came and all but I can’t wait to go back.
by submission | Aug 30, 2015 | Story |
Author : G. Grim
Do I know you? Maybe. Let me think.
I think we met on Betelle.
When I look at your face I remember tasting strange fruit. Like persimmons, but wetter. Sweeter. Like water falling in a garden. They don’t have fruit at home. I remember that. Something to do with pollination and bees and … something. There is a word for that fruit, but it’s gone now. Like the apple trees are gone and I can’t remember why. I can’t remember why I’m not at home.
No, it wasn’t Betelle. It was Lastly, and the fruit came from Betelle. The fruit seller looked old, but someone told me that she wasn’t. The journey changed her.
Was it you who told me that? Or was it you who handed me the fruit?
I’d love to have just one more mouthful of that fruit. I remember that people used to hate the rain, and now I’d give anything for that fruit because it tastes like water falling from the sky.
Do you remember the sky? I do. It was a blue so intense it was almost purple. Not the sky at home, of course. The sky on Betelle. There was something wrong with the sky at home.
Stop interrupting me. It’s very rude. You can’t make a memory wake up, you know. You just have to wait until it’s ready. Sometimes if you push it goes away and never comes back.
We went away, didn’t we? We left home because the apple trees and the sky were gone. And we’re never going back. But you were with me. I remember your hands. I remember squeezing them as the engines roared. Ripping apart what was left of the sky. Crying because there wasn’t any rain left.
Why aren’t you old? If the journey made her old, why aren’t you if we took that journey together?
Am I old?
Am I?
Who am I? I don’t remember. Do you have any fruit for me? I miss the taste of raindrops.
We stopped on Betelle. That’s where I tasted it for the first time. Oh. Oh yes. They grow it there, the rain-fruit, and then they send it to other places. All the places where people remember apple trees and skies.
You were there. I remember that. You held the fruit for me as I ate it. I remember the taste of sweet juice on your skin.
Why are you sad? It’s a lovely thing to remember and you look so sad. I was so happy.
Why aren’t you happy? Aren’t we safe here together?
I remember…
I remember I offered you some. You liked persimmons, back when they still grew at home. But you refused. You were so angry. I don’t understand why you were so angry. A whole world that smelled like rain and flowers and you hated it. And I was angry.
I don’t want to remember being angry. I was happy before. Why did you come here? This isn’t your home.
This isn’t my home, either. I want to go home.
I want to go home.
I want to go home!
Oh, Lastly. Lastly isn’t home, but it’s all there is now. I remember that. I remember the day we came here, ripping another hole in another sky. I had my hands in my pockets that day. I would have held your hands, but I was holding my last fruit.
You were so angry. You took it away. You threw away my fruit and brought me here.
I remember you.
I hate you.
I love the fruit that tastes like rain.
by submission | Aug 28, 2015 | Story |
Author : Jacqueline Bridges
SWF seeking SM, 40-50, human or android. Looks not important.
The blinking type flooded John’s inbox. Delete, delete, del—he paused on the last: Android adoption today, new shipment, Middleton Square.
The Organization of GoodWill toward Men, Women, Children, and Android caught him as he slipped in.
“Have you considered adopting an Android, sir?”
John stopped, paying no attention to the aid, his eyes on the reader board above them. Android Adoption: Save a droid. Two models set for recycle.
The aid talked on, “We have many in need of a home. They’re very good companions, and still useful. No more shoveling snow.”
John cleared his throat, “I’m looking for a girl.”
“Yes, yes,” the aid’s voice rose with animation, “we have a number of females today. Many—“
“Seven.” John’s eyes went to the manifest list, “I’m looking for a seven-year-old.”
The aid recovered, “They’re often older, not the norm.” He referenced his list, keeping it from John’s view. “Oh.” He shrugged. “We do. She came in this morning…”
It was all he needed to hear. John stormed the registration table, fumbling for something to charge his account with. “Number 72108,” he spouted, “I’d like to make an order.”
The woman at the desk verified his registration. “Yes. You are clear to make an order.”
“I’d like the seven-year-old girl.”
The woman frowned at her keyboard, “Let me see what we have in inventory. A young girl–”
“She’s in there.” John tapped the table with his writing instrument, engraved with the GoodWill’s unification logo. “Came in this morning.”
“Ah yes,” the woman smiled. “Straight from Japan. Retrieved from the docks this morning.”
“Yes.” John grumbled. “Where do I sign?”
The woman nearly laughed, “It’ll take a while to process the paperwork and register the droid. And then there’s programming.”
His eyes dropped.
The woman twisted her lips, reading John’s disappointment, “Maybe we can speed this up.”
John’s urgency returned with the start of a smile.
The woman’s smile was more playful, “Let’s start with your registration.”
John pushed the buttons, signed the documents, and answered all the questions for programming.
“Alright then,” the lady clicked her tablet once more. “Your droid will update tonight at midnight. We’ve gone ahead and programmed her with the name you’ve chosen for now, Anne—?”
“Anne—a—See—a.”
“Yes,” the woman fluttered her eyebrows, “a very pretty name.”
“Her mother chose it,” he said, “named after her grandmother.”
“Ah,” the woman cooed. “Yes, very nice.” She was used to this sort of thing, humans naming Androids. “Well, she’s all yours.” The woman motioned for someone behind her, “William, please take droid E0067 around for pick up.”
She turned back to John, “Here’s your slip—just follow the signs for delivery. William will meet you in back.” When John hesitated, she motioned to the crowd of protestors behind him, “It’s better this way.”
John grabbed the pink ticket from the woman and hustled to his car. He didn’t bother with a thank you or a pardon.
By the time he reached the loading area, his hands were moist, sticky with sweat. He gave himself a once over in the mirror, smoothing his gray hair in place, checking for food between his teeth, and for his final preparation he tried on a fatherly smile.
The girl was small, skinny, with hair lighter than he liked, but close enough. He held out his hand for hers and she slipped her small fingers in his,
“Hello father,” she said.
“Hello my dear Annacia. I’ve missed you.”
by submission | Aug 27, 2015 | Story |
Author : Patrick Hueller
The footage is grainy, and getting grainier with each viewing. But Peter Nevins doesn’t notice. To him, what’s on screen is crystal clear. The TV isn’t flickering; the colors aren’t blurry.
There the soccer field is, looking just as it did exactly thirty-seven years ago. The grass remains as green as ever, as chewed up from two weeks of competition.
There the other players are, frantic, scrambling, converging.
There the clock is—not technically on the screen—it was extra time, and they didn’t put extra time on the TV back in the ’80s—but it’s ticking away in his head just the same: “9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . .”
There the goalie is, striding, slipping.
And there Peter’s younger self is, among the other players but slightly ahead of them, surprised to find the ball at his feet, the net unoccupied.
“Calm down,” Peter tells his younger self. “You have time.”
But his younger self doesn’t listen.
He rushes the shot. A wide open net, but he sends the ball high and wide.
There’s the sound of the other shot, the other kind of shot, and there’s Peter crumpling onto the field.
There’s the blood, blooming on his jersey.
He was lucky, everyone had said.
An inch or two to his right, they said, and bye bye heart.
They’d called the shooter a fanatic, a lunatic, a soccer-watching sociopath.
And in his head, Peter has always known they were right. He should forget about that guy, just as they advised him. Forget about the whole day.
One bad day doesn’t define a person, they’d said—let alone one bad moment.
In his head he knew they were absolutely, unequivocally right.
As for his almost-bullet-ridden heart, though . . . well, it won’t let him forget.
For thirty-seven years, he and his heart have spent the anniversary of that day pleading with the footage.
Relax, they’ve implored his younger self. Slow down.
You have plenty of time, they’ve insisted. The net’s wide open.
Go in, they’ve begged the ball. Please. This time please go in.
That’s what he’s doing now. Pleading. Supplicating. He’s on his knees, straining his eyes at the TV, beseeching the ball to find the net.
But it won’t.
No matter how many times he rewinds and re-watches, no matter how many years pass, the tape shows the same missed shots. One misses the net; the other misses his heart.
The same thing, over and over.
And yet he keeps going. Keeps rewinding. Keeps re-watching.
Again and again.
Each time, he’s sure the next viewing will be different.
After all, he’s done it before: thirty-seven years ago to the day, he wished for something so strenuously that he made it happen.
He wished to die.
As he watched the ball soar into the stands, he told himself that his life might as well be over, that someone might as well end it right there and then.
And, okay, this desire didn’t exactly come true, but it was pretty close. One or two inches, to be exact.
So maybe, just maybe, he can once again alter the course of events through the sheer force of his will.
He rewinds, re-watches.
Repeats.
Repeats again.
He watches the ball leave his younger self’s foot and he entreats the forces that be for a different outcome.
Please. Please. PLEASE.
And it works.
Finally.
After thirty-seven years and thousands upon thousands of viewings, the forces that be actually cooperate.
Instead of soaring, the ball merely rolls.
Slowly.
Honestly, Peter can’t believe how long it’s taking for the ball to cross the goal line.
Long enough for him to realize that he’s no longer a young man. He’s standing there, on the field—he’s somehow been transported from his living room back to this stadium—but he hasn’t regained any of his former leg strength. He’s still an old man, stiff and arthritic.
Which explains why the ball is rolling so slowly.
And why it comes to a rest right in front of the goal line.
He watches in horror as the goalie scrambles to his feet and scoops the ball up before Peter’s teammates can get to it.
He hears the referees’ end-of-game whistles.
And he shuffles, just in time, one or two inches to his right.
by submission | Aug 26, 2015 | Story |
Author : Ken McGrath
My mother often said that before I learned to walk I ran.
I ran everywhere; probably why I wasn’t so quick at learning to read. I couldn’t sit still for very long, didn’t like having my feet parked beneath a desk you see. I’d an abundance of energy, that’s why I was always darting around the place, chasing everything from footballs to girls. Heck I even chased the odd dream.
And I caught a few too, like the one thing that got me through school. Relay races, the sprint, hurdles. I did it all, although I wasn’t so good at that last one. Seems I never was great at overcoming obstacles. The one minute mile however, that was what stole my heart. A stretch of open track, pure focus and immediate results. Sheer beauty.
When I went from my teens into my twenties I kept upping the distance, ticking off boxes. 10k, 20k. Even the big one a few times.
Then when I was 29 I ran into Bernadette Walters. Beautiful, slender, ambitious Bernadette Walters who had lips that would set you weak at the knees and a shard of ice for a heart. But I found that out much too late, because after we married I ran into a wall. Work, bills, the mortgage on a tiny apartment that went too quickly from bijou to coffin-box. It was too much. I ran myself into the ground.
The pounds began to slide on and, for the first time, life ran away from me. Yet somehow in the midst of it all we conceived and along came my little Suzie, my precious girl. And for a while she brightened everything up, but it didn’t last. We quickly fell back on old habits, staying together just for our little girl.
When Suzie was three I started to run again. Tentative steps in the park at night. Some men might have cheated on their wives but I did the only thing I knew how, I put one foot in front of the other and built up laps. Every night, always coming back to the same place no matter how fast or how far I ran, life had become a circuit of cold stares and bitter, poisonous words.
We were out on Christmas Eve pretending to be a real family when the first attack came. The blast dropped from the heavens like God screaming and tore the shopping centre we were walking towards into pieces. I grabbed Suzie, turned and ran. There were screams but I didn’t look back. I just kept going. I had to make sure my girl was safe.
Weeks have passed now. The snow is melting and buds are appearing on some of the trees. From talking to other survivors I’ve learned of the hundreds of simultaneous attacks around the world. They say those first blasts were an extermination front-wave, firing pulse after pulse and reducing our cities to rubble, disrupting humanity for the coming alien invasion.
They say there’s a Resistance coming together but I don’t want to be part of it. All I do is run. I have my girl and I teach her to run too.
So long as I have legs beneath me I’ll continue to do run. It’s all I’ve known since I was born. If my daughter is to survive she’s going to have to learn to run too and maybe then I’ll have done something good with my life.
