EP725: Falling Through

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Escape Pod 725: Falling Through

Author: Steen Comer
Narrator: Roderick Aust
Host: Mur Lafferty
Audio Producer: Summer Brooks

Escape Pod 725: Falling Through is an Escape Pod original.

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Woke up again. Checked the news feeds. Everything seems to be about the same, though there is news of a presidential candidate who I don’t remember dropping out of the race. It’s really hard for someone in my position to take an interest in politics, so that’s not really a strong indication. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.

I went to work and the office was still there. My memory tells me I’ve had this job for a few months now, which is helpful. One of the most traumatic shifts I had, because it was one of the first, was showing up at my office job and finding that it was an auto body shop. Luckily I had a faint memory of another location and was able to get there only half an hour late. My boss didn’t even notice.

That was when I first started really thinking about the shifts. I had been seeing the small ones for a long time, but that was the first incontrovertible one, the first that I couldn’t explain away as an error of memory. I thought I was going crazy, of course. Spent a while like that. And, in a case like this, it’s impossible to be sure that I’m not crazy. But I’ve found a Practical Operational Paradigm, as Jonas was fond of saying.

Oh Jonas. First shifter other than myself I ever met. Last one I ever saw. I should get back to work. I don’t know why today I need to write this down again. Maybe it’s the sky. It’s a flat grey that could be anywhere. It’s the color of Claire’s eyes.



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[FleggTheAxe]

Hello EscapePod. This is my first post here and I hope all is well with you. Please feel free to use this feedback.

I enjoyed Falling Through and was sad and hopeful for the protagonist to find his girl. I am still considering how his future self became distanced from his present self (I did not see that twist coming by the way)
This story reminded me of Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1984. I loved this ending better than Heinlein's.
Did you hear that? BETTER THAN HEINLEIN!
Just remember: You can always wash dishes.

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Thank you for the feedback!

[Languorous Lass]

I also liked this story a good deal.  Much as I hate to admit it, I’m a sucker for a bit of romance blended in with my science fiction.  (Call it “character development.”)  The direction in which this story went surprised me, in a good way—although not a feel-good way.  Roderick Aust’s narration was a definite plus.

[CryptoMe]

I liked the story very much, right up until the ending. It made no sense to me that future version of the MC would go through with the dimension fixing experiment if he knew it would separate him from his love. But maybe I'm not understanding something....

[AM Fish]

I was also, like CryptoMe, scratching my head a bit at the end.  I enjoyed the story but I wanted more from the female character or, rather, I wanted the narration to share more of her point of view and the back and forth of their relationship.  She seemed more of a place or state of mind (maybe status?) that he was trying to get to than someone he cared about.