“They say He lives in Tibet,” she told me. She was still digging in the tan, dusty ground with her hands, even though we hadn’t found another turnip in almost an hour. “Where’s that?” I asked. The shaded tree bark… Continue Reading
Wife #11 arrives for her shift, struggling out of the rideshare with a bulky chrysalis of luggage. In photos, the house had been impressive. In person, breathtaking. A citadel of concrete and glass. Unlike anything back home. Amika waits, tugging… Continue Reading
I’m floating and untethered, adrift in a place I can only describe in loose terms. I perceive the world in colours now. Pale blues and greens and flecks of deep crimson. The reddish freckles in my vision are calibration markers.… Continue Reading
I hated to admit it, but Lee was usually right. Not always, mind you. No one is always right. He would sometimes say stupid things like “I only got Earl Grey because I could’ve sworn you said you liked Earl… Continue Reading
The earliest memory he could hold En-capsule was binding scraps into breathing limbs for Riggers on Skaars Round near Mars. First folds and remnants of the past were more akin to jilted frames in dark hallways far too close. When… Continue Reading
As an ER nurse, I’ve delivered a few emergency births, but never a male birth and never on the Lunar Shuttle. And never eight-months pregnant myself. But when the new chef — Ricky Valdez — went into labor, a quick… Continue Reading
Hannah takes a moment to steel herself before opening the door to her office. Evelyn looks up at the noise, smiling. Her face is calm and pleasant, but Hannah never feels quite at ease when the A.I. looks at her.… Continue Reading
Never give up. That became the family’s mantra, even after the basement flooded with sewage for the third, fourth, fifth time. By number five, old Grandad Uchytil figured it was going to be an annual visitation, a smelly, inconvenient, unavoidable… Continue Reading
“Hima da,” Keisho complained in Japanese, collapsing dramatically into a heap on the floor. Katarite tucked the silk of her kimono behind her knees and sank gracefully to the carefully manicured lawn. “Today we speak English,” she admonished the girl,… Continue Reading
Mari Estrela did not close the minimarket. There was no final gesture, no shutter falling, no moment that could be recognised as an ending. She left it running, as one leaves a system in motion not out of trust, but… Continue Reading