Your Song

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It used to be our tribal way where the birth date of a child was counted not from when they were born, nor from when they were conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in the mother’s mind. And when a woman decided that she would have a child, she would go off and sit under a tree, by herself, and she would listen until she could hear the song of the child that wanted to come. And after she’d heard  the song of this child, she would come back to the man who would be the child’s father, and teach it to him. And then, when they made love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they would sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it. Continue reading

Torn

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I kick the third attacker in the stomach again. This time I catch him in the solar plexus. I can see his eyes roll into his head as the wind is knocked from him. He’ll be down for the count.

I still can’t shake free from the vice-like grip the first attacker has my arm in. He has his entire body weight behind the shoulder lock, and I can feel it tearing at the joint. I am distracted by the foot long knife blade whipping towards me by the second attacker to be able to disengage.  Continue reading

Utopian Dream

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The Utopia System, was, in any measurable sense, completely unremarkable. Its star was a blue dwarf, just like most others in this sector, and none it’s eight planets supported a significant atmosphere, let alone sentient life. There were no asteroid clusters, comets, nebulae, or any other remotely interesting stellar phenomena nearby; there wasn’t even anything worth mining in the minimal ice belts. In short, there was absolutely no reason for any living creature to ever come here. Continue reading