Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Talia on February 28, 2011, 01:13:59 AM
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PodCastle Miniature 59: Rainmaker (http://podcastle.org/2011/02/27/podcastle-miniature-59-rainmake)
By Benjamin Thomas
Read by Wilson Fowlie (of The Maple Leaf Singers (http://www.maple-leaf-singers.com))
A PodCastle Original!
I was eight then, which made her eleven. We lay on a grassy knoll. The earth dampened my flesh: buttocks, shoulders, elbows, and heels. It was late spring, and a light breeze chilled me in pleasant contrast to the tingling warmth of May sun on skin.
“I see a peacock,” I said. It didn’t look like a peacock, a bird, or even a fan. Clouds never really looked like anything, unless you squint just right.
“That one looks like,” Arida furrowed her brow, crinkling up her glass smooth face, “a circus.” The wind gusted.
“It does not,” I protested. “It doesn’t even look like a …” my voice caught. The panorama shifted subtly yet suddenly. I saw the circus; her circus.
The center formed an enormous tent. Crowds milled around it. They moved in less than real time, but at a steady pace. One person spit fire, another juggled. A bear balanced speckled ball in front of the main entrance. In those days, I had seen a few paintings, and none compared to this monochrome play in the clouds.
Rated G
Read the full text here! (http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=3584.0)
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I liked this story when it was in the flash contest and I still like it. Interesting food for thought that a cloud-talker would cause a drought instead of a rain.
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I didn't dislike this PC Mini as much as I have many others.
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I didn't dislike this PC Mini as much as I have many others.
From StePH, that's like a rousing brass band endorsement. I may weep.
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I didn't dislike this PC Mini as much as I have many others.
From StePH, that's like a rousing brass band endorsement. I may weep.
For real. Unlike most of those others, there was a coherent story here.
...I can't remember which mini it was that I actually liked. But there was at least one.
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I loved how this went from a cute scenario of two kids looking for shapes in the clouds to a tale of great sacrifice when she took on the burden of leaving her family for the sake of their sustenance. I can only imagine where she'll end up settling down, maybe in the desert somewhere?
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I didn't like this one much. It wasn't the brevity or simplicity - those are requirements for such a short story - it was the style. Something about it just didn't do it for me. It was a little too... inelegant?
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This was pretty cute.
But I couldn't help wondering, what happened last year?
Did she suddenly gain the power to talk to clouds between last rainy season and now? If so, I'd rather hear about that, it sounds far more interesting.
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I loved how this went from a cute scenario of two kids looking for shapes in the clouds to a tale of great sacrifice when she took on the burden of leaving her family for the sake of their sustenance. I can only imagine where she'll end up settling down, maybe in the desert somewhere?
I wondered this too. Rain is even more important in the desert because of how rare it is. Where does she go? Does this drought follow in her wake forever? Are there elderly, sickly clouds out there that she could mercy-kill? What is her stance on cloud-euthanasia? We need another story from her point of view.
But I couldn't help wondering, what happened last year?
Did she suddenly gain the power to talk to clouds between last rainy season and now? If so, I'd rather hear about that, it sounds far more interesting.
That would be a good place to start one.
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I really enjoyed this one in the contest, and I enjoyed hearing again it on the podcast.
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Having thought about this a little more, it makes a lot of sense.
See, nature is balanced. And we already know about Rob McKenan, so there should be an anti-rain god. This girl.
Now the question is, what would happen if the two of them got together?
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they'd probably cancel each other out and normal weather patterns would ensue