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PC211 / 592: The Axiom Of Choice

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Ocicat:
PodCastle 211: The Axiom Of Choice

by David W. Goldman

Read by Eric Luke, of the Extruding America podcast.

Originally appeared in The New Haven Review, Winter 2011.

The three of you have lingered outside the darkened club an hour beyond the show’s end. Your palms rest atop your guitar case, which stands vertical before you on the cracked sidewalk. Standing not quite as vertical, Paul steadies himself by pressing a hand against the club’s brick wall, just below a photocopied poster bearing an image of his face looking very serious. (DYNAMIC SINGER-SONGWRITER PAUL MURONI! says the poster. Your name appears lower down, in smaller type.) One corner of the poster has come loose. It flips back and forth in the unseasonably warm gusts that blow down the narrow street.

“But really,” says the guy, some old friend of Paul’s whose name you’ve already forgotten, “why should you two spend tomorrow driving way up the coast for one damn gig, and then all the way back the next day? I’ll fly you there tonight in my Cessna — tomorrow you can sleep in as long as you like.” His arms sweep broad arcs when he speaks, the streetlamp across the road glinting off the near-empty bottle in his grip.

Paul rubs the back of his hand against his forehead, the way he always does when he’s tired. You’re both tired, three weeks into a tour of what seem like the smallest clubs in the most out-of-the-way towns along the twistiest roads in New England.

Paul looks at you, his eyes a bit blurry. “What do you think?” There’s a blur to his voice, too. “I’m in no condition for decisions.”

Rated R for language, violence and sexual content.


Listen to this week’s PodCastle!

Kaa:
Often, when I see a PodCastle that's an hour long...I inwardly groan because it means I'll have to spend three commutes listening to it, because I can only listen to Escapepod, Podcastle, and Pseudopod in the car, since they require full concentration. When this one started, I admit it: I very briefly thought, "Maybe I'll just skip this one. It sounds annoying."

Then I gave it those few minutes Dave implored us to give it. I ended up taking the long way home--half an hour out of my way--because I wanted to hear the end tonight instead of tomorrow.

Wow. This was AMAZINGLY good. I'm usually not a fan of second-person POV stories, and those 'choose-your-own adventure' stories were...the opposite of good.

This...this was a work of art. A truly enjoyable--if bizarre--story. I found myself saying things like, "C'mon, man! 714! 714! GAH! You idiot!"

Good stuff.

DKT:

--- Quote from: Kaa on June 06, 2012, 04:13:20 AM ---I found myself saying things like, "C'mon, man! 714! 714! GAH! You idiot!"

Good stuff.

--- End quote ---

You are the king under the mountain, and this particular part of your comment made me go:  ;D ;D ;D

danooli:
Still listening, but i just have to say that Dave is a genius and should get working on that "choose your own adventure" app ASAP!

Pirvonen:
I was hoping the story would involve some of the weirdnesses that can result from the Axiom of Choice.

I'm not sorry that didn't happen. In all its bleakness, this was a captivating story.

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