The Windtech
The first thing we learn when the windtech arrives is that wind turbines are female—or at least he calls them all “she” for some reason. “She looks to be in remarkably good shape,” he says as he peers through a pair of binoculars at the nearest turbine, which is standing idle in the distance. Its […]
Miss Angela Dean
Alabama hadn’t changed a whole lot since Grandpa’s time. Born in 1993, had he lived just a smidge longer, he’d’ve lived in three centuries. As it was, nineteen-year-old Sam was riding in the backseat of Papa’s car boat, watching the murky waves of the swamp lick the boat’s anonymous sides as they headed to clean […]
A Tree amid the Wood
That woman has come into my house again. I hear her husky voice as she grills my caregiver for anything she can learn about me. Some of the words elude me. The curtains, woven from the translucent leaves of living plants, rustle in the air, distorting the murmurs from the next room. Often I cannot […]
Unpredictable Weather Patterns
Kevin isn’t like the other members of his notorious family:his storm-front brothers racing out of the northeast. Nor is he in the category of his boisterous hurricane cousins,foaming and churning off the coast. Kevin isn’t even like his howling tornado twin sisters,twisting and shouting all over the plains. He is just an insignificant, small storm,soon […]
Helianthus
“Funny, a vampire with SAD,” I quip. The tall Ukrainian peers through mirrored goggles. “Intolerance to sunlight does not qualify me as vampire.” Leonid is our grower. It doesn’t matter how clever the plant biologists are, myself newly included, if you don’t have someone with green fingers to nurture your gene-hack creations. And Leonid is, […]
Yard Work
Carlotta said, “The first rule of yard work is—” I held up my hand to stop her. “Hold on,” I said. “I saw this in a movie. Let me guess. The first rule of yard work is: ‘You do not talk about yard work.’” Life is a movie. Sometimes it’s Fight Club. Carlotta shook her […]
What to Expect When You're Expecting Advanced Life-forms
Before becoming a plarent, I dedicated most of my energy to sculpting the contours of my crust and pumping up my magnetic fields. I was young and gorgeous—the envy of my siblings—living my best life in the fast lane. As the ages passed, however, a sense of emptiness overcame me. Then came the bad years. […]
Sea Turtles
I don’t know how it happened, only one day he was my son and the next he wasn’t. It’s been a month, and now he’s a sea turtle. He never even liked sea turtles. I don’t remember them from his childhood, sea turtles or llamas or little grey owls, all those pastel animals that end […]
Demeter Seeks Persephone in the Year 2210
1. OVERWORLD We, the chorus, welcome you to today’s stage, a patch in the rocky landscape once known as Attica. Close your eyes and inhale the subtle sweetness of sun-warmed grass. Hear the soft rustle of dresses, giggling young women whose whispers counterpoint the chirping birds. Soon you realize there’s no variation in the birdsong, […]
An Intersection of Parallel Lives
“You don’t need a reason to save people,” I argue to the boss. But apparently, if I’m flying on her dime, I do. In the end, it’s the chickens that win her over. The records I uncovered deep in the archives state that two centuries ago, when the Novus and its passengers departed to colonize […]
