Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Talia on May 09, 2014, 12:56:09 PM
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PodCastle 310: When the Lady Speaks (http://podcastle.org/2014/05/08/podcastle-310-lady-speaks/)
by Damien Angelica Walters (http://www.damienangelicawalters.com)
Read by LaShawn Wanak (http://tbonecafe.wordpress.com/)
Originally published in What Fates Impose (http://www.amazon.com/What-Fates-Impose-Alasdair-Stuart-ebook/dp/B00FE7MDE0), edited by Nayad Monroe
Marina locks the door, twists the blinds shut, and heads back through the beaded curtain, parting it with both hands so the strands don’t get tangled in her wig. Leaving the lights dimmed, she sinks down into her chair, as if her entire body holds the weight of what is yet unknown and unspoken.
The walls of what she calls the parlor are a dusky red, cluttered with mirrors and tiny shelves with dragons and gargoyles and crystals. The table is a simple thing, but covered with several heavy tablecloths, all with tassels hanging from the corners. She found the chairs at a thrift store—the dark wood and velvet cushions from another time. A Turkish rug, another thrift store find, covers the floor completely. Every bit of fabric holds a trace of the incense she burns every morning before her clients arrive, a potent blend of frankincense and musk. But not too much; she isn’t a church and absolution doesn’t come in a deck of cards or a mouthful of evocative words.
She peels the fingerless gloves from her hands. Drops them on the table with a weary sigh. In the center of her left palm, the tip of a
red thread pokes from the skin like a tiny drop of dried blood. When she touches the thread, she smells the tang of oranges, tastes honey
on her tongue; both small gifts from the magic. She takes a quick breath before she pulls the thread free. There’s a sharp bite of pain,
like the last little sting of a scab tugged from a wound. Not a gift, but a price to be paid.
Rated PG.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s PodCastle! (http://media.rawvoice.com/podcastle/media.libsyn.com/media/podcastle/PC310_WhenTheLadySpeaks.mp3)
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Interesting story, a speculative look at the difficult dilemma of what to do about a loved one in a coma.
As she was giving the threads to her daughter and her daughter was reacting, my interpretation of that was that the reaction didn't necessarily meaningful. Certain kinds of stimulus will even make a corpse react (applying electrical stimulation to tense the muscles) and I thought this was much the same thing.
I'm not sure I understood what was meant by the daughter's hand producing a thread at the end.
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Interesting story, a speculative look at the difficult dilemma of what to do about a loved one in a coma.
As she was giving the threads to her daughter and her daughter was reacting, my interpretation of that was that the reaction didn't necessarily meaningful. Certain kinds of stimulus will even make a corpse react (applying electrical stimulation to tense the muscles) and I thought this was much the same thing.
I'm not sure I understood what was meant by the daughter's hand producing a thread at the end.
I read it as the daughter telling her mother, in the only way she could, to let her go.
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I thought this story captured the tragedy and the heartbreak of the situation really well. I appreciated that even through the lens of the mother's hate, it's clear that her daughter's husband was not evil. He was just a guy who made a terrible mistake and was doing his best to deal with the high cost of that mistake.
I was really rooting for the threads to work their magic and bring the daughter back. But, I also interpreted the last bit to mean the daughter was giving her mom permission to let her go. So sad!