The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: short story

  • Falling Feet First

    Delicate silver wires formed leaves that wound into a basket. Plump berries oozed crimson juices that stained the wires and puddled on the stone table beneath it. The scent of ripe fruit permeated the air, begging for a passerby to pluck one from the bowl and pop it between lips.

    The wall shimmered and a man with almond-shaped turquoise eyes, dusky skin, and long coppery hair passed through. Behind him, a boy with sandy hair and dull brown eyes followed him in, one hand clutching the trailing shirt hem, the other shoved into his mouth.

    The man lifted the boy, setting him on one of the stone benches in front of the massive table. “Remain here and touch nothing. I shall return in a moment.”

    The boy shoved his hand further in his mouth and nodded. The man studied him for a moment before stepping through another shimmering door that appeared in the wall. When the man passed through, the wall sealed behind him and glowed the same soft green as the other walls. The boy sat still for what felt like an eternity before he pulled his sticky hand from his mouth. He shoved himself to his feet, leaving a damp smear on the bench and looked around the room from his new vantage point. The floor looked like a dangerous leap away. (more…)

  • The Rest of Us: Bottoms Up

    This short story takes place in the world of my planned dystopian science fiction novel The Rest of Us.

    The glassware clattered as another rocket launched. My father, sitting at the head of the large oak table, steadied his wine glass and then lifted it up as if that had been his plan all along.

    “To a new future,” he said, yelling over the roar of the nearby launch. “Bottoms up.”

    We drank. My mom, father, and brother-in-law drank wine from a dark, dusty bottle. I, along with my six-months-pregnant older sister, drank iced tea. The noise of the rocket faded. My father smacked his lips and sat his glass back down next to the bone-white China, the finest plate he had ever seen. (more…)

  • Deep Flight – A Tale of Broken Memories

    Tenance groaned involuntarily as bright lights flooded his vision once more. His pod door slid open with a smooth hiss of hydraulics, revealing one of the security drones. Again.

    “There are four critical issues which require your immediate attention,” it said, as the various LED lights in its chest flashed red. “Please make your way to the Command Deck once your thoughts have recovered from sleep sickness.”

    He rolled his eyes, following the robot back to the central computer. As if someone of his importance could be affected by something as mundane as sleep sickness. His mind was perfectly fine, and there was no way extended hibernation could affect his thoughts. Sleep sickness was something that affected other people. Tenance was the leader of some tens of thousands of civilians. It made sense that his intelligence would be without equal.

    His luck left something to be desired, though. This entire voyage had been nothing but bad luck.

    This space ark was one of many that had been sent into space, in the hopes that at least some of the ships would escape devastation at the hands of Earth’s invaders. It seemed likely that Earth would be destroyed completely, but if the space arks could manage to colonize other planets, there would still be hope for humanity.

    They had made it past the blockade, but not without taking significant damage. The opposing armada had pierced the hull in several locations, killing about a tenth of the population. The captain and most of the leadership had been among those killed, leaving Tenance in charge. But that was only the beginning. (more…)

  • Against Stone Doors

    The first step to achieving world peace, she decided, was to get everyone’s attention. If the whole world focused on a single, miraculous occurrence, they would have no time to fight any longer. She considered stopping the sun or making all of the stars go dark at the same time, but those weren’t really things she had control over. Not without asking the gods for a favor she wasn’t sure she could afford to pay back.

    So she tried to think of things on a smaller scale. She could set fire to all of the forests at the same time or dry up all of the rivers. But then the nature sprites would be upset and she didn’t really want to hurt all of those innocent animals. Not to mention, it would be nearly impossible to coordinate an effort that massive. Plus, seeing as she didn’t have the magical ability to start fires or dry up rivers, it would require another favor from the gods—and while this one probably wasn’t quite as major, depending on the mood of the god it could end up being worse. Being indebted to the gods was never advisable, no matter how small the debt. Trying to outwit them to get what you wanted for no cost even less so. (more…)

  • My SAD Valentine

    Valentine’s Day is the absolute best and worse for people like me.

    I work for a singing telegram agency. I won’t tell you which one. Are you kidding me? After telling you this story, I would most definitely get fired if they knew.

    So, for the last several years, in addition to singing telegrams, I’ve also been a member of the sad group of people who call Valentine’s Day for what it really is: Singles Awareness Day. Is anyone else aware of the irony that the acronym for that actually spells out the word SAD?

    Yeah.

    (more…)