I Just Read About That…

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[READ: December 9, 2023] “Cosmic Cul de Sac”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Jade Song.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 9. Jade Song, author of Chlorine, is more into natural front yards anyway.

I loved this story.

A Chinese woman has moved to American with her new husband. But he is an astronaut and spends most of his time in space.

She is alone in this weird cul de sac with Bob-on the left and his self-propelled gas-powered Honda HRX217HZA while Bob-on-the-right mows with a Toro 20333 with an extra wide blade.  They cut the front lawn to a very specific height.

She hates the town.  She hates the cul de sac.  She feels like whoever made it simply made a house and then ctrl+v, ctrl+v over and over.

She walks in the cul de sac although the local youth like to toss a baseball around her head–whether they are trying to frighten her or not is unclear.  And then there is the constant mowing.

One afternoon, she gets a rare call from her husband.  She immediately says she wants to go back to China, but the connection is poor.  And then the mowers start and neither one can hear the other.

Then one night (the whole story is told in second person, so you do this), you wake up and sneak into Bob-on-the-left’s garage and fix things for herself.

I enjoyed the way the story blossomed from there.