Embedded Files
"Thought" by Amanda Bergloff
“Thought” is a digital image.
Denver-based Amanda Bergloff is surrealist collage artist who often enhances digital images with three-dimensional techniques like cut paper, acrylic paint and drawn elements. She is also a graphic designer and science fiction/horror author. Her online portfolio can be found at https://abergloff2.wixsite.com/artistgallery.
Dear NewMythians,
Welcome to my little corner of the NewMyths universe. I’m delighted to share with you a collection of fiction, poetry and nonfiction that merges heart and mind and body, as our cover artist Amanda Bergloff so brilliantly illustrates in her image “Thought.” In contributions from some of our favorite award-winning authors and many that are new to us, you’ll find a bit of funny, some wryness, some darkness, and most of all, deep exploration of our situation here on Earth. Speculative art does it best!
I hope some or all will set you atingle.
Candyce Byrne, issue editor
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
FICTION
FICTION
The shaman stopped abruptly, turned, and pointed back the way they’d come.
“Look behind you,” he commanded. “See that?”
Morgan didn’t see anything.
“Behind you—that’s history.” Mohalla motioned the other way. “Up ahead, where we’re headed, that’s destiny.” He smiled slyly, as if he were pulling Morgan’s leg. “Of course it’s still up to us whether to turn east or west.”
The old geezer thought he had him bamboozled, but Morgan wasn’t put off that easily.
“You care too much about what other people think,” Nainai says, her wrinkled face creasing further still. “Our line, your baba’s ancestors, has had some as pale as you, going back a long time. You can’t predict where the genes will show up.” She passes a gnarled hand over Kathryn’s hair. “In fact,” she continues, “you look just like my own baba. So stop worrying. Be grateful they’re only calling you a ghost. They used to call my baba a devil.”
It took three molts to make my body for this job. I studied the mechanics of our electrical systems for three molts, and when I was not in the library or the classroom, I was in the barochambers, the hibersaunas, the altitude pavilions, and everywhere else that could prepare me. With the first molt, I was already growing and hardening, and my shell even started turning red to keep the otodaths from seeing me. With the second, my eyes enlarged to detect the sunken indicators and my pleon grew to make me a better swimmer. With the third, the world outside the acclimation chambers started to feel hot, dry, achingly heavy, and blindingly bright. The geotherm staff brought me to Mariana Station later that day, lest any further exposure to the surface reduce my suitability for the abyss.
Julia might have asked me many questions had we not been interrupted by the knockings, giggles, and whispers that came from the many recesses and alcoves in my tiny home, from the drawers and cabinets and cupboards above and below and all around us. Julia opened up each hiding place one by one, and out tumbled Iliana, Margareta, Violeta, Ruxandra, and the others, all her little, laughing loves one by one. The dolls formed a ring around her and danced and sang for her, a song about being lost and found and home again.
She pulled the jewel from her pocket and placed it on the table, where it glowed like a candle between them. Khasar frowned, touched it with a finger, and jerked his hand back as if burned.
“Listen, Cousin. This thing is more trouble than you can imagine, and I’m not talking about that man tracking you.”
“So, you don’t think I have to worry about him?”
“I didn’t say that. He’d kill to get it back.” He leaned toward her. “Listen, this thing doesn’t belong here. It’s upsetting the balance, gonna push us all into the fire.” He leaned back and smiled. “You’re gonna put it back where it belongs.”
FLASH FICTION
FLASH FICTION
POETRY
NONFICTION
The media cannot be faulted for extrapolating from Dr. Ragsdale’s statement that octopuses (and by extension other cephalopods) are “like aliens.” No other intelligence on Earth is as distantly related to us. Their anatomy, communication and physiology are nothing short of bizarre. Their genetics are unique. They demonstrate that intelligence has evolved at least twice on Earth, once in invertebrates and once in vertebrates, and that there is more than one route for achieving it.
Page updated
Report abuse