Strange Stories, By Strange Authors, for Strange Listeners
The first ‘Go to Hell!’
The Angels did say
To certain poor bastards
On Valentine’s Day;
‘Go to Hell!
We do our job well!
It ain’t who you are
It’s what you can sell…’
On Valentine’s Day,
The World demands Love
With a milk-chocolate fist
In a red tin-foil glove.
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The six of them meet for the first time in front of the sagging clapboard house where Everett Montrose was born. All are tired, with hollows under their eyes from driving or riding buses for days. Even so, they greet each other with shy, relieved smiles. Few words are said; most seem unsure of how to speak to each other. There are some handshakes, even a quick hug or two, but these interactions are awkward and all soon turn their attention to their reason for coming here. They all carry with them small pieces of Everett Montrose, and all instinctively touch the fragments as they look to the house.
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We stayed on the path. The light seemed to drip down from the canopy of the woods like rain. The going was easy, especially if we didn’t try to look at the path but let our feet find their own way.
Then through the trees I saw their fire…
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“You don’t have to talk like that to us, mister,” I said. “We know town-speak just fine.”
The man with the hat put it back on his head and smiled with a hint of embarrassment. “Sorry, folks. Sometimes it helps, you know, smooth the way.”
That man with the computer was lurking by the corner of our porch, holding it up and aiming some kind of camera at the eaves. He steered a pair of laser beams from one end to the other. I figured I’d let him do what he was doing if I didn’t see any harm.
“Smooth the way for what?” I asked. I knew what was coming next, what was always coming: talk of imminent domain, of making way for progress.
“Something exciting,” he said, lifting up a foot onto the lowest step. “Opportunity of a lifetime…”
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In some parts of the world — Austria, Croatia, Hungary — they still remember. They understand. You can’t have something bright without having something dark to balance it. If you’ve got St. Nicholas, you also need the Krampus…
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It is three thousand light years to the Vatican. Once, I believed that space could have no power over faith, just as I believed that the heavens declared the glory of God’s handiwork. Now I have seen that handiwork, and my faith is sorely troubled. I stare at the crucifix that hangs on the cabin wall above the Mark VI Computer, and for the first time in my life I wonder if it is no more than an empty symbol.
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I can’t fly faster than a speeding bullet. I can’t lift a car. I can’t climb slick surfaces with my bare hands or breath underwater or stop time. All I can do is change blue things to yellow. I didn’t bother to buy a cape or a spandex suit like the others. I just bought a blouse and some slacks and went into interior design…
On this episode of the Drabblecast: an introspective look at ourselves. First, a Drabble from Tesseract McCrea. Second, the feature by Elise R. Hopkins, which features a dejected ‘gifted’ whose super-power has not found her the fame and fortune to be expected.
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Once, at the beginning, you asked why you were brought here. This is what I told you: your parents made a deal. I would rid them of their plague of rats, and they would pay me. I cleared the town of pests, easily done, and returned for my payment. They laughed at me and tried to send me away with less than they promised. Money is not important. Deals are.
Another of the Drabblecast Trifecta series, this time with the theme of Fairy Tale child abduction. A set of stories, written by authors Amanda C. Davis, Megan R. Engelhard, and Steven Saus, featuring kids of all shapes, sizes, and murderous intent levels. Episode also includes details on the Drabblecast’s ‘Become a Tim Pratt character‘ contest. Listen to find out!
Help support Norm’s New CD: The Esoteric Order of Sherman. Pre-order the Order.
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James Kennedy had stared at his sock drawer for a good ten minutes that first morning, dumbfounded. He’d never seen it so neat, and he didn’t remember doing it. But there they were: threadbare, but tidy and folded…
Another Drabblecast doubleheader special, featuring two stories from from author John P. Murphy.
Help support Norm’s New CD: The Esoteric Order of Sherman. Pre-order the Order.
Episode Sponsor: The Flash Pulp Podcast, thrice weekly pulp stories for the modern age.
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This, of course, is what comes of being overly friendly with strange mangoes. One day you’re a wide-eyed virgin, with nary a care in the world; the next, you find yourself most unexpectedly and all but inexplicably burdened in a manner that afflicts virgins only once every two thousand years or so, to the best of your understanding. It isn’t fair, but folk tales rarely are to young maidens — this is the first thing that you really ought to have known.
This week’s episode of the Drabblecast podcast begins with Norm imploring listeners to chip in for the production of his highly anticipated second CD. The Drabble is Déjà vu, by Ben Parker, concerns old magics and old memories. The feature is a change of pace story, Bearing Fruit by Nikki Alfar, in which a naive lass learns of life and her burgeoning womanhood upon unexpected contact with the supernatural. The show closes with classic bbardle Radioactive Runaways.
Help support Norm’s New CD: The Esoteric Order of Sherman. Agree to contribute, guarantee yourself a copy – Pre-order the Order. Classic Norm Sherman penned and performed “bbardles,” done up proper with the full studio treatment, in a package featuring art work from man of mundane mystery Bo Kaier.
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