My short story, “Soft Serve”, has been accepted by State of Matter and is in the August 2024 issue! You can read the story here.

Inspiration

When I was in middle school, my history teacher said that empires rise and fall on a 300-year cycle. I could do math at the time, and I realized that I would be around during the presumptive fall of the American empire. I follow the news on climate change and our increasingly short timeline for correcting our ways, plus the wars waged around the world and civil unrest in America, and the neglect of physical and societal infrastructure. I began to wonder if we’re already falling and what life will be like twenty-five years from now.

This wondering took the shape of writing short stories based on Tulsa, OK in 2050. Some of them are more hopeful than others. Some of them are extreme versions of what I have seen played out in Oklahoma. The first of them is one such extreme: “Soft Serve”.

“Soft Serve” is based on a visit to the doctor. I was in the waiting room with about 10 other people, waiting to get my blood drawn. It’s just one of those unpleasant necessities, but we’re all stoic about it.

But at least one person in the waiting room didn’t know what was about to happen. There was a little girl drawing with markers on a coloring book on the floor. She’s singing a little. A woman I presume is her mom is watching her drawing. A name gets called. The mom and girl go through the door. It shuts behind them. Then the little girl starts screaming. Two female voices soothe her, but it’s going on for a really long time. People shift in their chairs, catch each others’ eyes, and do a weird half-smile. And the little girl just keeps screaming. I start to think, you know, maybe something terrible is happening back there. Maybe she’s screaming for good reason. Maybe I should get up and do something.

Eventually the little girl comes out with her mom. There’s a bandage on her arm and tears in her eyes, and her mom leads her quickly out the door.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her screaming and that what-if. All around the world, there are practices that people think are unpleasant necessities, but in reality are brutal non-essentials. What-if there was something more sinister happening behind that door? What-if what I’m seeing in Oklahoma has warped normality? What-if we’ve already decided to not open the door?

You can read “Soft Serve” here.