Thursday, January 7, 2016

Starshaping

(From time to time, I'm going to be writing snippets based on a list of abstract prompts These characters are from the short story that will be coming out in the Circlet Press anthology Like a Spell sometime this year.)



“Oh crumb! Stupid internet.” Callie slammed her laptop shut and tossed it onto the floor.
Ari peered over the top of her textbook. “Callie! Watch your language!” she scolded, suppressing a laugh.
“Ugh. Sorry. My parents were always preaching about bad language and how it shows a lack of creativity. Anyway, why can’t I get a decent wifi signal in your apartment?”
Marking her place with a (not terribly clean) napkin, Ari closed her book. “I think it’s probably all the magic. Interferes with things. If you wait long enough though, sometimes you can log into the network for the French national library!” She crossed the room to stand behind Callie, placing her hands on the other girl’s shoulders and gently kneading. “What were you trying to do, anyway?”
Callie felt the knots in her muscles slowly begin to untie themselves. Maybe, with Ari around, she wouldn’t go around with her shoulders scrunched up to her ears all the time. “Oh, it’s not a big deal. I was just trying to pull up a simulation of the birth of a star.”
Ari slid her fingers into Callie’s short, spiky hair and began to massage her scalp. “Huh. I thought you knew that kind of thing already.”
Callies eyelids fluttered shut and she drooped lower in her seat. “Mmm, that feels amazing. Um… yeah. I mean, I do know it. But I was just reading about it again and I wanted to see it in action. I wish we had a planetarium here.”
Ari smiled to herself, suddenly inspired. “Do you have a copy of what you were reading?”
“Mm-hmm.” Callie pointed to a magazine on her lap.
As she continued to read, she felt her voice filling the room, and heard the sharp intake of breath as the cosmic objects she described began to take shape in the darkness behind Callie’s eyes. She could feel them herself, a bit - a sense of slight vertigo as the gases and dust began to plummet towards their own gravitational center; light-headed elation as they whirled faster and faster and finally began to glow.
When she finished, she let the magazine fall to the floor and leaned down to breathe a wisp of a kiss into Callie’s hair. “See? No planetarium required.” 

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Paper Girl

(From time to time, I'm going to be writing snippets based on a list of abstract prompts These characters are from the short story that will be coming out in the Circlet Press anthology Like a Spell sometime this year.)

When Callie walked into the cafe, Ari was hunched over, nose inches from the countertop, focusing on a small object in her hands. It was miserable weather - sleet and biting winds -  and there was only one other customer in the place. Callie nodded to him as she crept up to the counter, keeping her footsteps as silent as possible. She still couldn’t get over her scientist’s urge to observe Ari without interfering.
She needn’t have bothered with the stealth. Ari was so absorbed in her task that Callie was able to watch for several uninterrupted minutes, even leaning so close that she could smell the other girl’s shampoo. Ari had a small square of paper that she was folding into ever smaller squares, long, slender fingers turning it deftly to and fro. When she finally stood, it was to present the finished object to her girlfriend with a satisfied smile. Balanced neatly in the middle of her palm was a miniature paper replica of Callie herself.
“You knew I was here,” Callie observed.
“Duh.” One corner of Ari’s mouth quirked upward. “Do you like it?”
Callie reached for the sculpture, then hesitated. “It’s so delicate. I’m afraid to touch it.”
Ari pulled a to go carton from beneath the counter and gently tipped the mini-Callie into it. “There.” When Callie still hesitated, she pushed the carton across to the other girl. “Come on, it doesn’t bite! It’s for you - do you like it or what?” She bounced a bit on the balls of her feet.
Callie peered into the box. “It’s beautiful. But how did you learn it? And… why?” Seeing Ari’s eyes widen in indignation, she hurried to clarify. “I mean, don’t they teach you magical ways to do things like that?”
Ari folded her arms and cocked a hip, all smug, skinny self-assurance. It was comical, and more than a little sexy. “Sure. But I like to work with my hands.”