Urban Fantasist
Menu
Picture
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Poetry & Fiction

New Flash Fiction: Getting Nostalgic over Linter

11/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Yes, we are a day early (have to be on the road and out of communications reach for the next couple of days) which kind of ironic because today's story – Nostalgia by Mark Mills – has a time travel element. The author is Mark Mills, an English Instructor at Northern Kentucky University who has been published in Tor.com, Short Story America, Pill Hill Press, RuneWright, Aurora Wolf Press, Bards and Sages Quarterly, among other places, he is also a regular Grievous Angel contributor.


Nostalgia
by Mark Mills



Mark Twain never said, “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because things always get there 15 years late.” Witty remarks of unknown origins are always attributed to Twain, Oscar Wilde, George Carlin, or Lincoln, so the misattribution shouldn’t come as a shock. What makes this bon mot notable is that it clearly refers, not to Cincinnati, but Linter.

Perhaps through some sort of geological fault, or perhaps only through magic, Linter exists 15 years behind the rest of the world. Upon entering the city limits, middle-aged parents grow fresh and young, antiques lose their value, and children cease to exist.

Residents rarely stray. Often an angry teenager will storm out of home, drive across the town borders to find himself divorced, corpulent, and balding. Older residents are more cautious. To venture outside is to gamble that you can shave a decade and a half from your life-span. The county coroner stations an ambulance a few yards beyond the main road exiting the town for the poor souls who risk it and rot into goo.

The federal headquarters of the post office and IRS have set up special provisions for late fees and overnight deliveries but the government is for the most part uninterested – Linter has nothing to do with UFOs, Satanic cults, or banking, no need for a conspiracy. It is the private sector that proves a threat.

Linter is a small town, barely two thousand folk make their home there. It can barely hold back the forces with a one and one-half decades advantage. Their cell phone reception is laughable. 

Armed patrols roam the surrounding woods and sentries stand before the town’s single highway exit to hold back the tide of grieving lovers and sobbing parents. Once a women was stopped while carrying a sack of 18 dead cats. A man from Wyoming has been deterred only at gunpoint from towing in his wrecked Corvette. But the town is not without pity. If the searcher’s need is great enough – and if there is enough room – they are allowed to pass.

# # # # #

But, even with a 15-year detour, time never rests. Parents can only look upon their living children and count the days. It makes no difference for cat or Corvette, the inevitable revisits. At that point, the survivors limp away or, if too noisy, are forcibly ejected. But some grasp at hope, for it is rumored that somewhere in Linter is a coal cellar that when entered, grants access to another 15 year reprieve. Yes, you’ve heard the stories but no one has ever found it. One miracle may be more than anyone deserves; anything beyond is simply presumptuous.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Welcome to the Grievous Angel – fresh free-to-read science fiction and fantasy flash fiction and poetry, including scifaiku and haiga.

    ISSN 2059-6057

    Quote, Unquote

    "We need more excellent markets like Grievous Angel" ...award winning Canadian author

    "Thank goodness for guys like you, who devote so much time to these things" ...Elizabeth Crocket

    "Thank you for giving us such a cool and unique e-mag" ...Mandy Nicol

    "Thank you for your kind words and making my weekend uplifting and bright. I'm excited to be published alongside other wonderful visual and textual works in Grievous Angel" ...D.A. Xiaolin Spires

    "Love your magazine. Keep up the good work! I've read bits and pieces of so many magazines that are so boring, I'm donating to yours because everything you publish is fascinating" ...Laura Beasley

    "I want to be a part of any project named after Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris" ...poet, writer & journalist Andrew Darlington

    "I really love your site and the wonderful eerie fiction you publish. Unlike a lot of work, most of what I read on your site stays with me - like a flavor or a scent, slightly tinting the world" ...performer, writer, biologist and painter E.E. King

    Categories

    All
    Flash Fiction
    Haiga
    Haiku
    Poetry
    Scifaiku
    Tanka

    Archives

    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    RSS Feed

Picture
Copyright © Charles Christian 
& Urbanfantasist Limited 2022


urbanfantasist@icloud.com

Fuelled by Green Tea & Rosé Wine

  • Home
  • * Latest book *
  • Weird Tales Videos
  • Charles Christian Bio
  • Manifestations
  • Books & Reviews
  • Weird Tales Radio
  • Donations
  • Writing: Nonfiction
  • Writing: Fiction
  • Writing: Poetry
  • Old Americana
  • Old Grievous Angel
  • WoldsCover
  • Home
  • * Latest book *
  • Weird Tales Videos
  • Charles Christian Bio
  • Manifestations
  • Books & Reviews
  • Weird Tales Radio
  • Donations
  • Writing: Nonfiction
  • Writing: Fiction
  • Writing: Poetry
  • Old Americana
  • Old Grievous Angel
  • WoldsCover