I’ve always enjoyed the way Shakespeare played around with mistaken identities.  What would you do if strangers acted as if they knew you and as if you’d done things you were certain you never had?  “The Universe Seen as a Floating Orange Rind” is my foray into this world.

The Universe Seen as a Floating Orange Rind

by Danith McPherson

Knock, knock

Who’s there?

Your creation

My creation who?

Granite philosopher of the fourteen million nine hundred and twenty-nine thousand four hundred and sixth millennium

At the age of thirty-one Albert Wren was abandoned, with good cause, by his mother.   Considering Albert’s personality, it’s amazing she didn’t do so earlier, a fact that qualifies her for sainthood.  If Albert had been an enslaved Israelite in Egypt, Moses would have left him behind.  And if there had been more forethought put into it, an eleventh commandment would have been written specifically for Albert beginning with “Thou shalt not” and concluding with something like “inflict thy dependency upon the innocent.”

Saint or not, Albert’s mother had no intention of carrying her burden to the grave, thereby becoming a martyr.  Having a comprehensive understanding of her son’s nature, she realized that the easiest way to sever one tie was to create another.  She therefore sent an unemployed, broke Albert to an aunt in Minneapolis who, in her estimation, was crazy anyway.  A perfect solution.

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Find the complete story in my collection Roar at the Universe, Tales of Crisis and Survival.  The ebook and print book are available through Amazon and other distributors.  Published by Wayward Serpent.

“The Universe Seen as a Floating Orange Rind” was first published in Space and Time.