Second Star to the Right
Four scifi short stories.
"Second Star to the Right" - Two disgruntled schoolboys plan a trip home.
"Childhood's Beginning" - A young boy abandoned on a barren Earth follows his grandmother's plan for revenge.
"Here Be Dragons" - A boy is forced to create a new ending for his own fairy tale.
"Fester Janos's Hamster Wheel Invention" - A schoolboy’s class assignment affects his entire family tree.
Excerpt
(From "Second Star to the Right")
SCHOOL’S OUT, SO ANDERSON Skeete and I visi-text our parents for the OK to go to Brownes Beach. They give it, and we celebrate by each buying a lead pipe pastry, a Plus drink, and a fish fritter, before beginning a leisurely trek down Bay Street.
Near The Boatyard, an old H2O PSV cruises overhead before floating earthwards to a gentle stop. It’s the B93. It spews around 80 people from its 30-person capacity, which still leaves it crammed. The driver, Brakesjam, looks expectantly at Andy. Andy’s the new boy at school, arrived just three months ago, but everyone notices him.
Now he smiles at Breaksjam and points towards the beach. The tall lanky driver, folded behind the wheel like a praying mantis, smiles back at Andy, ignoring me completely.
I’m used to it.
“Careful, boy,” Brakesjam warns him, “Waves real rough today.”
Brakesjam cruises on. Drivers in Bim—or Bar-Bay-Doze, as the non-indigenous still pronounce it and live it—love speed. They’re as likely to shear the corner off a No Speeding sign as to smear a pedestrian around one. But despite his tag, Brakesjam has a safety record that’s second to none. He’s the slowest driver in this sector.
In fact, stepping off the pavement is much more dangerous, because gutter moss is treacherous. It’s mostly been eradicated, but just like a virus, it pops up every now and again. One slip could see you clinging to the undercarriage of a government bus going to Chalky Mount. Although for many, that’s actually much better than clinging to the inside.
Chalky Mount is CIMIC. Or officially, The Chalky Mount Investigative Clinic.
It’s where all the Space Orphans are culled.