The alien invasion ships steamrolled over Tau Ceti. Earth’s direct connection with its very first and only colony was severed within the first seconds of the assault. Earth did not learn about the attack from the ground station, as the first impact had shattered the dome and killied all of its occupants at once. The […]
Category: Writings
Guardian Angel
The air is hot. Camille’s already in bed, but she can’t sleep. Mum has allowed her to read a little in bed as long as she doesn’t fret too much. * Louise is tidying up. She pulls the lunchbox from the schoolbag, takes out the empty cake wrappers, throws them away and puts the box […]
Breakaways
The reptiles had chosen the slow, collective option. In their early times, they had played a lot on many variations, and things like growing fins on one’s back, or a disproportionate neck, was considered amusing, if somewhat tasteless, whims. So: trying to fly? Suit yourself. Granted, happenstance cut this approach short and seriously upset climatic […]
THE BENEFACTOR
This text, written by Albert Aribaud <albert.aribaud@free.fr> was published in 1996 in issue 11 of the French fanzine Dragon et Microchips by l’Oeil du Sphinx and is reproduced here by kind permission from Philippe Marlin, of l’OdS, as (slightly) edited on June 15, 2020 following thoughtful remarks from Laird Bob Fumble, whom you can follow […]
The youth
This text was written based on the June 10, 2020 #EcritHebdo (“weekly writing”) challenge to write a text starting with “Hé ! Les jeunes” (“Hey! The youth”). This was done in just 15 minutes from concept to publishing. Hey ! The youth have gone. We saw they weren’t involved in their studies; we wondered how […]
Empathy
This text, written by Albert Aribaud <albert.aribaud@free.fr>, proofread in French on the (late) Atelier de Création Littéraire, is published under Creative Commons by-nc-nd (attribution, no commercial usage, no modification) license; for any use incompatible with this license, contact the author. The attribution constraint implies keeping this paragraph just before or just after the text title. The text may be reproduced in any file format as long as it does not contain any digital rights management mechanism.
I am sitting at the terrace of the café, savoring the fact, firstly that there still are some cafés left with a terrace to sit at, and secondly that this one is close enough that I can stop there from time to time on my way to work.
My coffee (decaffeinated, for health reasons) is kindly waiting for me to finish drinking it, while I read my morning paper and wait for for a lab colleague whose arrival I check for with a quick glance after each news item.
As I cast one of these glances, I notice the individual stationed on the pavement across the street. Stationed is the word : he is staring at me, unmoving among the passers-by. His gaze crosses mine, and that is, I am sure, what sets him in motion toward me […]