Mystery – The Drabblecast

Dexter crouched beneath the toxic fruit trees in his grassless back yard, turning over black earth with the spade he’d taken from the old man, and every shovelful revealed worse things: clumps of cinders and the dust of ashes; rusting nails, practically dripping tetanus; wickedly-curved shards of brown glass; bullets of various sizes, crusted with […]

Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness. Wretched is he who looks back upon lone hours in vast and dismal chambers with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books. Such a lot the gods gave to me – to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the […]

Two years ago it must’ve been. Me and Manny and a couple of the other boys — Carlos and T-Bone — met up at the last Dairy Queen outside of Lompoc. Manny was going on at me about that shortcut I liked, Route Nine. “I’m telling you that place is God-awful weird, Joe.”

Thousands of fish — dead, dying, or flopping in the shallows — littered the shore. A dozen people in their nightgowns, pajamas, or hastily-thrown-on street clothes moved along the shore, bending, exclaiming, whistling, laughing. Some had flashlights, but most worked by moonlight, scooping up flounder, blue crab, and shrimp. This was a jubilee, as I […]

The Drabblecast continues this two-part series with “The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part II)” by John Aegard. If you haven’t heard Part I, you should listen to it here. We also conclude Connor Choadsworth’s adventures in “In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm.” Story Excerpt: The crowd was lined up six deep along the […]

Sam Android found Gail Galaxy skipping monopoles off the inactive accretion disk of a small black hole on the outskirts of the galaxy. Every once in a while, she shot one in at too large an angle, and it was captured by the black hole and, with a blinding burst of X-rays, swallowed up. “I […]

You must know, Doctor, that I did not choose to seek psychiatric help. I have no faith that I shall exit this room a healed man; I know now that I have been destined for the asylum since childhood. No mere conversation with you can steer me clear of that fate. That said, let us […]

“Why do you remember the books?” he finally asks. She smiles again. “O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere, Till pride and worse ambition threw me down…”

As I crawled into the stranded boat I realized that only one theory could explain my position. Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval, a portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface, exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths…

This episode of the Drabblecast features “Babel Probe” by David D. Levine. This superbly narrated tale follows a nano scale robot on its mission to the past. Six thousand years earlier it uncovers the myths surrounding the Tower of Babel. A thought-provoking story unfolds. Which came first, God or man? Story Excerpt: I have been […]

“She was called Mrs. Underhill, because that’s where she lived, and I assumed she was some kind of hob, because she obviously wasn’t human…” In some Drabble News, Norm Sherman shares the interesting tale of well fed “Terry the Crocodile.” The featured stories are a double-dose of Michael Stanwick goodness. “Hush and Hark” brings a […]

I sense a diference the instant I step out of the water.  In the unnatural stillness there is an arid taste in the air that assaults the back of my throat… Norm Sherman brings us an episode about endings, and why they don’t always have to be bad. The Drabble is about a “beautiful” end. […]

What wonders my kin saw as the passed away, none living will ever know.  Only those willing to taste the waters see as they did.  Only those willing to taste the waters die with their eyes open…

Once you start to see them, they seem to be everywhere… The Drabble News report, of a 5-year scientific study which showed staring at women’s breasts prolonged the lifespan of males, inspires a now-infamous skit. Norm details the riot among medical test subjects when the non-boobie control group was chosen. The feature story continues with […]

I’ve almost finished checking those measurements. That tooth—it looks homo sapien. This could be huge… Norm presents, in his inimitable style, a one-minute review of his long-awaited movie indulgence, “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.” The week’s Drabble concerns an auto thief reaching the top of his game through — what else — nefarious means. The feature […]