Releasing today on Fantasy Magazine’s story podcast is Dominique Dickey’s unique and prolific short fiction, Slow Communication. I so enjoyed narrating this captivating story that travels from generation to generation. It’s a story shared amongst a long line of women, women who have come into contact at one moment in their lifetime, with an otherworldly being. Women who are given one chance to ask the question of a lifetime.
Slow Communication follows the life of 17 year old Darla Revere. Darla is a part of this conversation, this continuum, so to speak. Each of the Revere women, have in their lifetime, been visited by this alien – this leviathan. As a child, Darla had heard over and over again, that one day the leviathan would come for her, and that it would come for her when she least expected it. The leviathan’s contact would evoke immense joy and pain, simultaneously. All words, all ideas – would be knocked out of your mind by the sheer intensity of the contact, so you had better have your question ready; you needed to have it down pat. You had to know it better than you knew anything else in your life. And if you changed yourself too much, if you did not bear a resemblance to the women in your family line, the leviathan may not be able to find you when it was your time. Generation upon generation, questions from the Revere line, along with the leviathan’s answers, were documented, recorded, and passed down to the eldest Revere daughter in the family. Each daughter waited for this moment. Their moment. And thus far, only one daughter had lived to hear the answer to her question. Darla wanted to change all that.
One question.
One question to last a lifetime.
What would your question be?
To listen to Slow Communication, come on over to Fantasy Magazine, Issue 76 of the February offering, where you can listen free of charge here. This podcast was produced by Skyboat Media.
Susan Hanfield 