Cherry Cola. Shish KeBabs. Bigfoot.
As the reality-bending cosmic menace Wormwood hurtles toward Earth, a 12-year-old boy celebrates his final birthday, finding hope among an unlikely collection of unusual friends and fantastical creatures.
Dad says the gravity will hit us long before Wormwood physically does, and already the moon is cracking and reality is getting pushed and pulled and squeezed and twisted (like taffy, Mom explains, but I’ve never really had taffy because Mom always says it is bad for my teeth and I’m thinking instead when I used to stretch and pull different colors of modeling clay together and each color became a thin band, then many thin bands, then eventually blended all together into itself). That’s what’s happening now. Everything we know is getting all mixed together. Even time, because it’s all one thing with space, Dad says, and I said I know that already because I watch science on YouTube. Amelia Earhart was here last night but I missed her because I had already gone to bed and apparently there are still bedtimes at the end of the world, which sucks.
Science fiction. Short story (3,000 words). Published in Lightspeed Magazine, issue 164 (January 2024).
“Dreamy and strange…It’s quite poignant and well done.”
Mike Bickerdike
Tangent Online
“Wonderfully bizarre”
Sam Tomaino
“Cute, amusing and a little strange. It made me laugh.”
“The narrative voice is an absolute delight.”
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