In the beginning, there was water and there was Otter. Otter played Chase-Tail to entertain herself and the pretty bubbles she shed floated upward.
Otter got bored of chasing a tail that was so easy to catch. So she made fishes that she could chase and that tasted better than her tail when she caught them. Their scales fell through the water as Otter ate.
Then Otter found a fish that had grown too big … Continue reading
Yes, Officer. You want to know about Miss Chung.
She was much loved by our fellow citizens. She was born and raised on the Moon. Born the same minute as our Glorious Nation. Their paperwork was signed at exactly the same time, in fact. We all considered it a good omen that Miss Chung became an athlete while away at University. There will be some among our fellow citizens who will say she spent too … Continue reading
Conn stood on the shore hills, his pack heavy against his back despite only holding one item. Or maybe that was just the weight of implications.
“Welcome yam,” he whispered.
The weather was clear enough to see the double hump of Mann, halfway to Ireland, and Scotland was spread out to the north, across the Firth. It was an amazing view considering there were days when the beach below didn’t exist let alone actual other … Continue reading
Elaine tried to surreptitiously tighten her coat around herself and her rumbling stomach as she waited at the door. The first sprinkling of snow had settled against the base of the house walls. Snow in October.
She shook her head. What had happened to the global warming? Had it faded somehow between now and her student days, when people could talk of nothing else? Had it been scared away by the wet, barely existent summers? … Continue reading
A front step creaked.
“Hello?”
She blinked at the old, barely there voice that quavered from her lips and rubbed at eyes that couldn’t see. She wished Mummy and Daddy hadn’t gone away and left her.
“Hello?” she called again.
Another creak. Then another. The rhythm, the tone – the weight and stride – seemed familiar.
“Daddy?”
Another creak and an answering call. “Hello?”
The voice wasn’t quite right, more like it had been after … Continue reading
A target acquired, the wings folded back and the body aligned for the dive. She felt the wind through feathers as if they were really a part of her. She felt the frustration when the target shifted and she knew the attack would miss even before the dive was near. She felt the strain on the muscles, the flexing of the bone as the wings spread to slow descent and then pumped to regain height. … Continue reading
Devvon walked through the archway and stopped, holding the heavy wooden door open with her body. She had to stop because what she saw on the other side of it was too much and too other to take in. She knew there must be words to describe it but she didn’t have them. Those words were something else that had been stolen from her before she even knew there was something to be stolen, like … Continue reading
The night-watchman pauses and curses at shadows that flicker in the gas light – each causing him to use his torch. The sound of metal scraping on metal jars when he opens the flap to cast light and it only reveals the wastes thrown from the houses as the rats scatter away from the noise.
He hates to be out and would rather be in his nice, warm bed with his nice, warm wife but … Continue reading
“Pregnant!”
It isn’t so much a question as a squeak of terror. She can’t be pregnant. There’s no way she-
The screen overlay on the bathroom mirror flickers and the voice of the diagnostic program – soothing, motherly and hand-picked years ago for those qualities – says, “The blood test confirms it.”
She jerks her hand away from the palm pad as if it stings, as it did when taking blood samples.
“Explain,” she says.
Three days of my life gone, once a month. Well, once every twenty nine point five days, being tied to lunar cycles and all that. I know when the full moon is, when to expect it, so I usually manage to book time off or make sure that I’ve left nothing important half-done for when I call in sick. The men, they get squeamish and put it down to “women’s problems”. The women usually make … Continue reading
An anthology from The Future Fire [External Link]
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