PseudoPod 654: Flash on the Borderlands XLVIII: Parts & Maintenance
Show Notes
“A Real Death” is a PseudoPod Original
“Kintsugi” is a PseudoPod Original — Kintsugi: “I wrote the story for a contest on Codex Writers forum. So much fun to join with more than a hundred people in getting a story done each week for a month!”
“How to Construct a Gun from Your Own Flesh” was first published in the Spring 2018 issue of Vastarien.
this isn’t meant to last
this is for right now
A Real Death
by Kurt Hunt
narrated by Graeme Dunlop
“Find a real death. But there is no real death any longer. There are bodies that break down the way the cars do.”
–Antoine de Saint Exupery, Flight to Arras
Bad luck. Voice went first. Hard enough to communicate with it, but without? Gesticulation. Exasperation.
The woman at the repair shop snaps her gum and raises an eyebrow at me. I signal again for something to write with. “Vocal cords,” I want to say. “Mute now. Graft? Transplant? Help a guy out?” But of course I say nothing.
She sighs and flips her visor down to block her eyes. Some vid, or maybe chatting with a boyfriend. Whatever. No help here. I’m invisible. Scansorted when I walked in: (1) warranties expired; (2) credit unsatisfactory; (3) accounts canceled; (4) nothing to barter.
As people used to say: “broke.”
I leave.
Fuck.
Bad, bad luck. (Continue Reading…)