Short reads: December 9, 2024

At an amusement park in a dystopian future, Miss Polly holds a spot in line for a terminally ill customer:

I’m a line-sit for the Ultimate Roller Coaster. At first, I thought the job would be depressing, everyone standing in line waiting to ride-n-die, but what I do is altruistic. I’m helping my clients out, making it easier for them to accept the end.

This story is full of gallows humour, clever worldbuilding and has a beautiful and touching ending.

The narrator of this story is a project manager in the most Project Manager sense. She’s trying to use work do move on from her husband’s death, but she’s the last to realize how poorly it’s working. I love the way this story slowly unravels as more of the narrator’s life is revealed.

Lukas isn’t exactly a natural with women. His first date with Amy ends in a way neither expected. This story made me gasp, laugh and cringe all at the same time.

I seem to be putting every single Katherine Plumhoff story I find in here. I swear I didn’t know this was her work until I reached the end.

A story of a possible crime, told in all a clever way:

What would you do if you saw something worse? Maybe a car slamming into another and driving off? Or a brick being thrown through a window?

Or a murder?

You might have guessed that I saw one of those. I can neither confirm nor deny that. But just for the sake of argument, let’s continue in hypotheticals.

A ghost story revolving around a fictionalized version of Ed and Lorraine Warren, who you likely know of if you don’t know the names. Written in the lyrical and absorbing language typical of Machado:

I told him the truth, or the truth as best as I understood it: I was born under an erratic star at an unknown hour and was fixed in neither this world nor the next.

This Hollywood Reporter article (via Metafilter) about the Warrens is a great read as well.