“You’re flirting with the waiters.”

Another Country -13-
by Erin Halfelven

I was behind schedule, so I was up all night trying to draw the most detailed version of Cindy I ever had for the cover of her book. I think I pretty much had her done when I passed out in my chair in front of the drafting board. When I woke up, I was looking at my work. But not the oversized drawing I’d just been working on. Had I fallen and knocked other work out of my desk?

When I cleared my eyes, I realized it was more than that. 360 degrees around me was comic book art. I looked down at myself. I was Cindy.

Destination Female

My girlfriend and I had been going steady for almost six months. I was already working, though I had only recently graduated from college. Sherry was still in college, finishing up her last semester.

I was working in the IT department of a local corporation. The job was fairly easy; the only problem was the hours around the weekend. If the gods were with us, the weekend could be enjoyed, but if the servers were acting up on a Friday, the hours piled up as we had to make sure that all was back up and functioning normally for Monday morning’s business.

Planning a Future
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

The ward bathroom. You are standing at the mirror with your shirt off and you don't know how long you've been standing here. The bathroom is empty except for you. The strip light hums above. Your hands are pressed flat against the sides of the belly, which is — large, is the only word, enormous compared to the last time you looked, the navel pushed outward, the skin taut and marked down the center by a dark line you didn't put there. You have been doing the inventory.

Absinthe and Roulette both go home for Christmas vacation, but events draw them and their friends together.

http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php

Maltese Escape
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

They called ours a family, but it was not as you understand that word. A family is supposed to be a safe place to bring a child into the world, to nurture that child when very young, and to support him or her in at least the first part of a journey through life. That is what a family is supposed to be – not a money-grubbing enterprise where every member is expendable.

Chapter 25: Fade to Black

As the scene from 1866 Seattle does a slow fade to black, a scene from 2026 Seattle comes into focus. Kate was seated at her vintage typewriter. A page from the final rewrite of her novel had her consumed. She had debated for months whether she should change her main character to a transsexual, or leave her intersexed.

We sent people to explore the empty ships right away. And we found... more documentation. In the parts of the world needing cleanup over the facilities, all the large bodies capable of helping with the cleanup were deployed that way. But here, I was free to participate in another document translation effort.