An imaginative girl narrates in her captain’s log as she, her father, and her dog pass through a car wash…and emerge on the other side of the galaxy.
Music: “The Superiority” by Andrew Sitkov
[Video Description: “Car Wash to the Cosmos” Trailer. Duration, 41 seconds. Music, “The Superiority” by Andrew Sitkov. Digital drawing. View inside the cabin of a car through the front passenger window. Foreground, a girl and a terrier sit in the front passenger seat, both facing forward and seen in three-quarters view. The girl, seen from shoulders up holds her left hand up to her lips. Her eyes are raised in a thoughtful expression. A braid falls over her right shoulder and over her seatbelt. She has a star sticker on her right cheek. She wears a headband with two antennae ending in balls with rings around them, like ringed planets. Her right hand, just visible is held against the chest of the terrier who has front paws propped against the window edge, and mouth open with tongue lolling out. A man sits in the driver’s seat, both hands resting on the steering wheel. His face is seen in profile. He’s glancing over at the girl and dog with a worried expression. Moon roof is open and displays a starry view of outer space. The driver’s side window shows darkness with streaks of slight. The middle panel between the front seats shows glowing lights where the gear shift would be. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Science Fiction,” is displayed at top. Tagline appears at bottom. It reads: “An imaginative girl narrates in her captain’s log as she, her father, and her dog pass through a car wash…and emerge on the other side of the galaxy.” Title card and tagline fade. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear in sequence: “‘Let me see where there’s a good place to land in that jungle,’ I said…‘Not a good idea.’ I smiled a little. ‘Oh no?’ Meena explained. ‘Don’t you know what they say about the jungles of Zarqlok? Pretty from above, deadly from below.’ ‘What does that mean?’ ‘Predators. Venomous predators. Lots of them.’” Site URL appears at bottom right throughout. As the last line disappears, the image blurs, the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com.”]
Welcome to Year 9 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. This year, I will turn the Wheel of Fiction to help me decide what to write. There are thirteen spokes on this wheel. Eight are occupied by the eight themes from the previous years of stories. One is a prompt to turn the wheel again. One is a wildcard (hmm…curious). And three are covered only in question marks. I suppose I’ll find out what’s beneath those questions as we go along.
Welcome to the WHEEL OF FICTION
This week, the Wheel of Fiction landed on the last remaining mystery spoke, the one designated “???????” The spoke was revealed to be…TRAVELER. Henceforth when the wheel lands on this spoke, the story will be about one or more characters who travel any distance, short or long, to any place, or dimension, or time, perhaps even within themselves.
All mysteries are now revealed. Or are they?
This week’s theme brought to mind the image of a car wash. I wanted to start with a small and everyday journey, like sitting in the car through a car wash. But when those blowers start up and they strike the windshield making streams of water ripple back, it brings to mind—well, to my mind—some kind of faster-than-light travel, like warp speed. So what if when you emerged from the car wash, you didn’t emerge on the other end of the stall? What if you really did travel faster than light? Where would you end up? And how would you get back?
[Video Description: Duration, 8 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, Music, Challenge, Draw!!!, (question marks). The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V3” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is the date of the spin, 4/2/2022. At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on a mystery spoke designated “???????.” As the wheel stops spinning, the spoke changes so that the word “TRAVELER” replaces the question marks. The words “Spin the wheel,” changes to the original spoke designation and then changes to the word “TRAVELER.”]
Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: CAR WASH, CARNIVAL, COSMOS, DAD, JUNGLE, MEENA, OUTER SPACE, RIGEL, TERRIER, ZARQLOK
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