The Enders
I was twelve when they descended into the alleys where I played with my brother. They called themselves the Enders; back then, we didn’t know what it implied. Tall gleaming creatures with perfect teeth, they seemed made of sun and sky, destined to shed light on our brown-skinned existence, lowly as the earth at night. […]
The Prince of Svalbard: A Saga of the Thaw
So. The Svalmen have always been renowned as the wisest and most warlike among men, and the most blessed. Did not the gods, in the frozen age before they made the world, visit Svalbard and there construct the great fortress Frøkvelv, and fill its catacombs and passageways with those seeds of wholesome grains that now […]
Old Growth
I was still procrastinating on my planned months-long process of cleaning out the office ahead of my retirement when old pal Roy Harvard interrupted with a call. I didn’t mind his intrusion. Most people clean out their office in a day, or in a few minutes if HR thugs are hovering over their shoulders. I’ll […]
Grass Still Grows
Marianne pulled the cover over the printing press, and packed the last of the slim volumes in the bags on the floor. The nagging ache in her gut gave a sharp twinge as she bent down. Indigestion, she told herself, but she knew it wasn’t. Knowing did no good, anyway. No more chemo, no more […]
Flight of the Storm God
Sometimes the dreams are wonderful, and sometimes they are living hell. There are times I walk in the Eden of olden times, when the world was green and the wind made racing waves across the steppes. I was there not long ago, it seems, standing in the clean wind under a warm sun, looking across […]
Civilizations
“Listen to me,” I think to this human. Ava Martins is her name. “I am here, under your feet. I am in the air all around you. Stop, pause, and listen.” I think these same thoughts to billions and billions of people every day. People seldom listen. “I need your help,” I think to Ava. […]
Exiled Together: Faces of Contemporary New York
From Exiled Together: Faces of Contemporary New York, Online Edition: “My grandfather was a Navy man. He sailed all over the world, the Bay of Bengal, the Pacific Islands. Wherever he went, he had the same mission: keep the peace. Also shore up our influence in the seas, but we don’t need to get into […]
Bleaching Event
As his wife passed through the hallway wearing a terrycloth bathrobe, her expression vacant, as if she’d slept in too long, Emery saw a painting through her neck. Her hair was up, the strands against her neck prematurely greyed, as was the rest of her, washed-out, losing substance. They hadn’t had a decent conversation in […]
Sweeten the Deal
Her first days in the city, Jeanette had been jealous of Rhodri’s tomatoes and Michaela’s zucchinis with their shiny green skin. Also of Angelo’s chillies and lemongrass. And Dominic’s flourishing plot of begonias—in spite of the fact they weren’t really allowed; the block’s rooftop biodome was for edibles only. Still, she would have gladly grown […]
Uphill Both Ways in the Snow
“Do I really have to be here for this?” said the finance minister, sweat rolling down his round face as they trudged across the shimmering tarmac. “You could let the rest of us talk to him and cut you out of the negotiations,” said the agriculture minister. “Nobody’s getting cut out of anything,” said State. […]
