"Professor, we were wondering if you could recommend a biologist with helping us to identify--Professor? Professor, are you listening ( Read more... )

"Snowshoe through fairytale woods," the brochure said. It sounded delightful. Fairytales are good, right? So my wife and I booked our vacation in the Icelandic resort, packed the kids off to the grandparents, and headed out the door with dreams of open, vast expanses of snow, toasty fires, and overstuffed feather comforters waiting for us at the ( Read more... )

Things build up a personality of their own over time, you see, and it's well-known that people who travel more have stronger personalities. It's like that with objects, too. And the steamer trunk that I'm going to tell you of, well, it's traveled an awful lot. It's held things from Christmas fruitcake and ladies dowries to opium stashes and ( Read more... )

Weary from their journey, they sat beneath the shade of the great banyan tree, squatted on their haunches, and chewed at the fruits they'd brought in their bags. Around them stretched the scrub desert, empty of any visible life. Then a small bird flew up into the sky from a bush nearby and they jumped to their feet, their hands reaching for their ( Read more... )

The cruise ship sailed into the night, beneath the lunar eclipse, and all the people danced on the deck. They danced and they laughed and they drank and they gossiped. They admired their shining bits, they admired the famous ones that they recognized, they admired the way the reddish moonlight made the waves glow. They ate and they laughed and they ( Read more... )

The stroking almost made her fall asleep, the smooth machine hands rubbing over her body, making sure that every muscle was loose and ready, easy in itself, uninjured, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. She knew of some who opted to be put to sleep during this phase, finding it too strange, too erotic. She found it comforting, like a ( Read more... )

The air smelled funny. That was the first thing she noticed when she stepped out onto the loading dock. She had remembered the scent as being like cinnamon bread, but instead all she smelled was the pungency of bodies that had not been sent through the mandatory deodorizer every day, regularly, and taken their pheromone suppressant pills. She'd ( Read more... )