Author Topic: PseudoPod 598: Walk in Beauty  (Read 1656 times)

Bdoomed

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on: June 11, 2018, 04:20:30 PM
PseudoPod 598: Walk in Beauty

by Jim Bihyeh
Narrated by Cayenne Chris Conroy
Hosted by Alasdair Stuart

Show Notes

This story was first published in the PseudoPod 10th Anniversary anthology For Mortal Things Unsung and follows immediately after the end of Jim’s anthology Coyote Tales available now from your favorite purveyors of audiobooks. https://www.downpour.com/coyote-tales?sp=22087



Tomacita Jones walked over the yellowing grass of the Carl Shepherd Memorial football stadium next to Wide Reeds Elementary School, listening to the autumn winds shake the elm trees at the edge of the gravel track circling the field. The winds were getting stronger now. The nights longer. The cold was becoming more real and the trees knew it. So they were letting their leaves die. She didn’t like that thought, as she bent over her knees and stretched her all-too-chubby legs under her all-too-puffy sweatpants. She double-knotted the laces on her scuffed running shoes. She hadn’t worn them in years, not since Rosa, her granddaughter, had been born.




Listen to this week's PseudoPod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Katzentatzen

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Reply #1 on: June 20, 2018, 10:30:57 PM
The descriptions of Tomacita's aging body were nauseatingly graphic. I'm young but in society, once a woman's body develops one defect that makes you less "fuckable", it's over. I was VERY surprised when the story didn't end with the child's death, but with redemption and acceptance. I'm sure Rosa will have that ceremony when she's of age!

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
--LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN


TrishEM

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Reply #2 on: June 28, 2018, 02:25:06 AM
I love this story. I love Tomacita, her strength, her growing self-knowledge, and what she eventually does about the situation. I also love the whole situation of the story, the horror as we see what's happening to Rosa before Tomacita does, but I'm really glad Tomacita made the choice she did. It was the right thing to do, and I also think she'll have more inner peace going forward. This is one of the story where the spooky elements really do reveal truths about humanity.