“In the Shade of the Overpass” // JMWW // November 2020
The implant in the city conservancy ranger’s wrist vibrates on the hour to remind him that it is time to patrol the perimeter of Riverside Park. He stands up, ignores the ache in his knees, and exits his station before the implant can sense disobedience and buzz again. It’s a small building tucked under the massive concrete overpass that transverses the north end of the park, and sits at the mouth of the moat that the city built below to catch the trash thrown from above. Beyond the overpass is the river, but the concrete legs of the overpass block it from the ranger’s line of sight.
Read the full story online here.
“The Exodus of Andrew McCallister” // Belmont Story Review // August 2020
Daniel lifts himself up into the arms of the biggest oak tree on the tallest hill at Moriah Christian Camp. This is easier now that he is eighteen and grown into his gawky, baby-deer limbs. In past years, just the act of hauling himself onto the lowest branch would be enough to trigger an asthma attack. Now he only feels the air catch in his throat for a moment before he perches on a sturdy branch with his back against the trunk. From this vantage point he can see all the way to town, and as he looks at the road leading up and out of the valley where it sits, he thinks about how hard it would be to leave the place that raised him.
Read the full story online here.
“Beck and Call” Pilot // Independent Podcast // December 2019
Linked here is the pilot episode for the fiction podcast “Beck and Call,” written by me and otherwise recorded, directed, and produced by my friend Amelia Haymes for her capstone project as an audio production program at American University in Washington, D.C.
Beck Davenport is a paleontologist with a problem. It’s not that she’s having any trouble singlehandedly taking down the global black market for fossils by tracking down lost specimens and finding the culprits. Rather, it’s that her wealthy Washington, D.C., political family hired a bodyguard, Andrea Call, to keep her safe while she does it, and now she’s going to have to learn how to solve mysteries with someone else by her side.
Listen to the pilot online here (audio player located at bottom right of page).
“Flowers for Al” // The Butchery // May 2018
At three in the morning on her second Saturday in the hospital for her broken hip, Al gets a
roommate. A young one, at that, with red hair shaved close to his head and delicate features
that make him look a little elven. He’s so small that Al thinks he must only be fourteen,
maybe fifteen years old. She wonders where his parents are.
Read the full story online here (begins on p. 27).
Syd Kennedy 