Pseudopod 473: Sack Race To The River

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 473: Sack Race To The River

by Chris Kuriata

“Sack Race To The River” was first published in issue 3 of Phobos in December, 2014.

CHRIS KURIATA has written stories about home invading bears, elderly poisoners, and ghastly family photographs, which have appeared in many fine magazines. He lives in the Niagara Region. He has a funny and creepy story included in the upcoming Exile anthology THE PLAYGROUND OF LOST TOYS.

Your narrator – Spencer Disparti – is a poet and the podcast host for “The Green Magick Podcast”. You can find most of his work at Skeletopia and you can find the podcast in iTunes or at Podbean.com.


After cramming ourselves into the sack—my brother and I crouched on top of Dad’s shoulder blades like a pair of folded wings—Dad galloped down the stairs and out into the night. My brother and I cheered, enjoying the midnight wind blasting across our faces. Dad ran to the escarpment, grabbing the trunks of skinny trees to keep his balance as we skidded down the incline. He ran to the edge of the river, huffing and puffing, checking the time on his phone.

“Seven minutes,” he said. “Thank God we’ve started now ’cause we need practice. We need so much practice.”



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[SomebodyElse]

I don't normally comment on stories, but have been listening for a long time. 

I really enjoyed the slow boil of this story.  We, the reader, are dropped into a situation where we know there is something deeply wrong with what is going on, but we aren't sure what or why.  I think this slow realization and underlying feeling is heightened by the use of a child as the narrative voice.

The experience of childhood is inherently one of ignorance and trust.  A child exists in a world where much of what occurs is beyond the scope of their understanding and they must rely on the adults around them to digest it into concepts they can understand.  Many times, a child must accept the fact that what seems to them to be completely irrational or impossible is actually true and reasonable solely on the faith they have in their parents.  This fundamental uncertainty takes a central role in Kuriata's story.  We, like the children in the story, are forced to make meaning of an act that defies understanding.

As the story develops, we see that this ignorance of childhood is mirrored by the adults.  Racing to the river or kneeling on hot plates is as futile as consuming ball bearings in peanut butter.  Ultimately, we realize the basic horror that the adults are equally incapable in the face of the Lovecraftian unknowable.

Anyhow, fun story.

[Vincezen]

Could be that I'm a father of a 10 year old boy and going through a divorce, however, THIS story hit me gut level and I mean that with the highest regards. I've been a listener since 2009 however, this is the first time I've ever posted about a story. It was simply told and devastatingly revealed. Well done, sir. Well done.

[Uncanny Valley]

SPOILERS:

While I liked the tenor of the story, the ending ruined it for me: Houses are burning, trees are turned to ash, rocks are turned to dust, but people aren't bursting into flames?  If the author is going there, it requires some sort of explanation, even a weak one.  And why choose to kill himself and his sons in that way?  I'm sure there could have been easier ways to do it, but then there wouldn't be a story, so I get that.  It just felt very contrived.  I suppose this sort of story is more about the journey, but it came undone for me at the end.  I hope I don't sound too harsh, as I'm trying to give a constructive review.  And if I'm missing something, please correct me.

[Unblinking]

Didn't care for this one, I'm afraid.

Throughout most of the story it appeared that the father was mentally ill and driving himself to do this rather abusive thing for no reason, and for the body of the story I felt like it was just striking the same note over and over again. 

In the end, it took a turn for the more interesting but also kind of fell apart. The heat of the visitors, whatever they are, is so hot that rocks are crumbling to dust and rivers are drying up in minutes, then even though people have survived this long they're not going to last long anyway.  They're going to die of dehydration really soon--we are more water than anything else, much less mass of water than is in a river.   Spending months and months and months preparing suicide as a measure against certain death doesn't really make sense to me.

Maybe the dad has some pertinent information that actually supports the whole eternal enslavement and damnation angle, but he never struck me as anything but off the deep end so even with the arrival of the visitors I have trouble giving much credence to other things he's said.  Without believing that than it's a race to avoid death by committing suicide...

Let's say that suicide is the best option.  Why a 3 minute run to a river for a drowning.  If I had to choose a way to day, drowning would NOT be it.

[Not-a-Robot]

Spoilers:

The writing was good, but this one hit me right in the plausibility button.  Why didn't anyone talk about the impending doom??  Especially the brothers together.  The other thing is that there are plenty of other ways to kill your children under 3 min.  And, at the end they were in a boiling river and it didn't seem to bother them at all.  Oh and, who is the narrarator talking with?   Considering the ending.

[Bruce Arthurs]

At the risk of politicizing the topic, I came away from this story seeing it as a metaphor for the runaway global warming/greenhouse effect some people fear may be coming.

The narrator's mother and brother are the people who say "We can't do anything about it except lie to ourselves that we can live with it, live through it." The narrator and father are those saying "We have to do something. We have to do ANYTHING." Even if that "anything" is too little, too late, and won't save them.

I didn't get the sense that the father wanted to take his kids to the river to drown them. I thought the father believed (wrongly) that the river's water would be enough to protect them from the fiery destruction onshore. In the end, the father was lying to himself just as much as the mother was.

[Moritz]

At the risk of politicizing the topic, I came away from this story seeing it as a metaphor for the runaway global warming/greenhouse effect some people fear may be coming.

The narrator's mother and brother are the people who say "We can't do anything about it except lie to ourselves that we can live with it, live through it." The narrator and father are those saying "We have to do something. We have to do ANYTHING." Even if that "anything" is too little, too late, and won't save them.

I didn't get the sense that the father wanted to take his kids to the river to drown them. I thought the father believed (wrongly) that the river's water would be enough to protect them from the fiery destruction onshore. In the end, the father was lying to himself just as much as the mother was.

Interesting interpretation, I'll think about that. (note: it's less political in Europe, where most people go for the science explanation  )

[That Hirschman Guy]

Great stuff. I like how we were kept in the dark as much as the boys (or maybe they knew?).  The father's dogged persistence and desire to save his family was gripping.