Annabelle’s mother closed her eyes. “Get it sharp,” she said. “Very sharp, so it doesn’t hurt much. I’ll boil some water.”
Somewhere in the house, far from the green places she’d known, baby Annabelle lay on her stomach and cried…
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Tag: parenting
This year when Peter ran into the living room, there sat Little Brother™ among all the wrapped presents, babbling baby talk, smiling his happy smile, and patting one of the packages with his fat little hand. Peter was so excited that he ran up and gave Little Brother™ a big hug around the neck. That was how he found out about the button.
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Though the boy’s birthdays occurred weeks apart, Mother combined their gift to please Father.
“You may choose your present this year, boys,” said she. “Something to fulfill your destiny, perhaps.” The boys were born to change the world…
The winners of the Drabblecast People’s Choice Award are announced: Best Drabble “Please Allow the Door to Close” by John Medaille (episode 89) and Best Feature Story, Floating Over Time by Robert Reed (episode 83). In the Drabble, gods get whatever they can afford at a marketplace of souls. The feature, The Food Processor, is a coming of age story about two brothers who use their birthday gift, an industrial food processor, to break free from the expectations and control of their formidable chef father.
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The shadow lingered at Sarah’s window, balanced on air, certain to fly away the next step I took. Another moment and it would be gone. Another moments and I would call the police, report my daughter missing, and spend the rest of my life convincing myself I’d imagined it…
This episode of the Drabblecast opens an announcement introducing the Drabblecast Archive CDs, featuring episodes 1-79 in a 3 disc set. In the drabble, a sleep-addled God himself cannot (or will not) provide a reason for why the world ended. The feature story, Sarah’s Window, explores the familiar theme of children leaving our world for one of fantasy, with the twist of a distraught parent serving as protagonist. A single father tries to convince a trespassing, morally ambiguous shadow creature to return his apparently kidnapped daughter, Sarah, amid its assertions that it is innocent of wrongdoing since “not all lost things are stolen.” An otherworldly realm seduces with magical delights.
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The fifth of the Drabblecast’s Trifectas gathers three stories about addiction to love. Due to the subject matter, Norm issues a warning about it’s kid unfriendliness. First, the narrator of Suzanne Vincent’s story, “Strange Love,” discovers the erotic secret behind the popularity of tattoos among space alien visitors. Next, Jim Bernheimer, (who had previously contributed the story “Reality Bites!”), offers “Cookies,” a quixotic tale leaving listeners to ponder whether we raise our kids, or they raise us. Finally, “Forbidden Love,” by Ian Fossberg, describes the final quest of a familiar love-lorn character from our shared childhood.
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“But Dad, he scares me….”
“I don’t care if he’s got three eyes and tentacles. He’s your teacher and you need to pass his class. Case closed…”
High school horrors delight us in this episode. In the news, we learn that Bigfoot is dead, if he was ever alive, which he might not have been, so he might not be dead! Feedback from Exit by Jeff Carlson and All In by Peter Atwood.
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Uncle Karl shouts when he’s mad, and sometimes he smacks Mama. That always makes the sharp things hurt me and the wiggly people come out…
On this episode of the Drabblecast, a dark tale from favorite author Eugie Foster. A troubled youth, a view in to his chaotic mind, and deeply effected life. Shake hands with the wiggly people!
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I know what they teach you in school, Bobby, but don’t let anyone tell you that the human race isn’t the greatest, most glorious of all earth’s creatures…
Norm presents his one-minute review of the monster movie, “Cloverfield.” The Drabble speculates on the Bleak Reaper’s off-duty recreation activities. The feature story, originally published in the print magazine “Futures,” is a “facts-of-life” monologue from a father to his son on an Earth crushed under the legless boot-heel of a strangely dehumanizing alien occupation. Concluding that no matter what heights humanity reaches, in the end we’re all worm fodder. Feedback for Episode #42, “40 Quarters,” was sparse and mixed, although the listeners certainly did emendate our vocabularies. Norm concludes with reminders that the “People’s Choice” award voting and the first annual Nigerian Scam Spam contest are both still wide open.
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“Michael…” his mother said, smiling and bending toward him. “Don’t you think we should invite your new neighbor over to play?”
In Drabble News: the field of Taxidermy triumphs with the successful recovery of a famous cryptozoological (mystery) animal. This week’s Drabble, “Shark attack,” provides a surprising role reversal. The feature story, also by author Ayn Sauer, continues the theme of vicious youth. “Marbles” tells the tale of young Michael and a precocious young collector named Alice. It details a kiddie cross, the sort of thing that scars for life, or elicits a frightful smile. Head-scratcher feedback for Episode #35, “The Guilt Trader,” follows.
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Ma called it the crazy. She always had. The old lady called it something else. Most of the time, before I- touched one- I used the word Ma used, or sometimes I called it the weirdness, to myself…
On this episode of the Drabblecast, the mother of a unique child must guide him towards greater knowledge of the powers he possesses.
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A day at the zoo turns into humanity’s ultimate struggle for survival…
Episode 11 of the Drabblecast brings us Secret Weapons – the first chapter of the Black and White Animals trilogy. Norm and Kendall Marchman share this story of a trip to the zoo turned strange and terrible. Drabble News reports on recent research involving dinosaur veins. Norm again encourages listeners to vote, and jump into the final week of the Super Animal Deathmatch.
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