Category: Fiction
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Mana from Evan
The landlord of the brick building on the corner of 18th Street and Elm sometimes wondered exactly how his longest and best tenant, a cafe with a board game theme, could stay in business on this side of town. There had been maybe two other patrons inside each time the landlord had visited in person…
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The Old Man and the Station
An old man closed the hatch in front of him, flipped a switch, and pressed the large button on the launch panel. He heard a muffled whump and looked through the small window. The coffin-sized emergency pod floated away from the station before firing its two engines. That ship was programmed to fly on autopilot…
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Life’s Compass
I finished my drink and placed the empty glass on the bar. I really wanted another, but my right hand was itchy. The owner of this place was playing bartender, in case I needed a reminder of just how auspicious and thoroughly-commercialized a guest I was. His name was Frank, maybe. He approached and cleared…
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Relics
Before I lost all radio and satellite contact, I had been flying solo on a simple survey mission, deep in unexplored parts of the asteroid belt. Out here, until I found something worth mining and the opportunists showed up, transponder signals from Central Authority were sparse and low powered on a good day. But, my…
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checksumming in with your friends
I finished plugging my spare body into an auxiliary, off-the-grid power source, though he was already charged to 73%. I double checked that his wireless connection was disabled properly and settled back into my own seat, sipping from a beverage that had been designed to taste like an old memory. I took a deep breath…
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Every Inode Is Precious
The Operator scanned her left and right side monitors quickly, where several live windows were lined with rows of stylized pie charts, each tied to a different performance metric. When things were going well, the light gray background and a high ratio of green plots were highly preferable to the rather angry looking opposite at…
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And, my third career was going so well
I sat down at my desk and sipped from my latte. Extra cinnamon! The coffee stand lady is always so nice to me. I was looking forward to my work day, another long set of short meetings to continue contract signings. My last employer and coworkers would scoff and poke fun, no doubt, at the…
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Artistic Visions
She prepared his favorite snacks, the ones he liked when he was on another painting bender, but wouldn’t take a moment’s rest to prepare any food for himself. She paused and poured two servings of his favorite beverage, too. He said there would be new work ready to share this afternoon. She did understand that…
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Chip Off the Old Block
Belinda gave up on improving her makeup. She frowned into the mirror and removed the Chinese serpent pin from her dress lapel. She rummaged in a drawer and selected a black cat silhouette. She accidentally poked her index finger when piercing the lapel with the cat pin, and cursed under her breath. Her bedroom door…
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Inner Demons
Maggie sat in her condo’s darkened living room with her back to the door to the second bedroom, the one they had turned into a nursery three years ago. It was nearly mid-day, but the blinds were closed. Sunlight persisted around the edges of the window, but seemed afraid to enter any further. Maggie wondered…