A Verdant Heart
Father’s leaves are wilting again. The bright green sprouting from his temples is tipped with crusty brown along the margins. He runs a finger across his scalp, parting the foliage on one side, treating it with as much respect as a comb-over. “Father, you need to get outside,” I say, although I may as well […]
King Tide
Some particular trick of the moon, the weather, and the Earth's closeness to the sun had pulled the tide all the way to 5th Avenue, a good half block further uphill than usual. The city had put out an alert, so Jordyn knew to clear out the basement ahead of time. Their landlord was smart […]
To the Havens
“Sarge? There’s a—thing—I’ve found at Pier Seventeen. I think you need to see this.” The voice on the other end of the line held just a hint of a quaver. George Aklaq grimaced at his screen. Trust the new kid to find trouble twenty minutes before the end of shift, and just before his holidays […]
Adiona Falters
Shelby hefted the door across two old sawhorses and measured it out against the drafty slab they’d been using. That done, she went back to her workshop for a screwdriver, her electric sander, and the portable generator she'd rigged from odds and ends. The new door would be a good one with a little effort. […]
When Appliances Go Green
Aunt Crowfoot lived in a caravan deep in the Misty Dells plantation, part of a national network intended to soak up excess carbon from the atmosphere, in the hope of preventing any more of London being inundated by the English Channel. I liked my aunt, and talked with her often. The only problem was that […]
Easy
Tom Baxter had worked it out. He’d always felt guilty at being a bit of a slacker. But that was the wrong way of looking at it. The Earth was in danger not because of people like him, not because of couch potatoes vegging in front of box sets of Game of Thrones, nor retirees […]
Parametrization of Complex Weather Patterns For Two Variables
For the first time in over two decades, it rained in the morning. "I don't think we own an umbrella," said Melanie. "But there may be an old raincoat in the closet." Pauline glanced at the wall of precipitation outside their window. "Be sensible. Raincoat or not, you're not going outside into that." Melanie peered […]
Dust and Blue Smoke
Kennit Martin charged into the playground like a tumbleweed on a mission. "Hey Jeff!” he yelled, still thirty feet away from me. “Steenrud's bought a whole gallon of gasoline!” He gulped air. “I was at the post office when the creeper came! He said he's already put the wheels on!" I threw my boomerang down by […]
Preventative Maintenance
As I belly-crawled through the conduit, I saw my boss Matthews’ smiling face in my mind’s eye and regretted not fighting harder to get out of this assignment. “Why me?” I’d asked. “Why not you?” she’d countered. Surely a smaller, thinner, person would have been better suited for this job—that was why not me. Damned […]
A Distant Honk
The footprints were as big as my snowshoe, the narrow heel a crisp outline, the impression not more than a couple of hours old. The clown tracks beelined from the forest edge toward my campsite, then grew more erratic as they disappeared between dark spruce trees hunched under their winter burdens. I shuddered, picturing it […]
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