Fiction: “In Fall, After the Harvest” by S. Travis Brown
The little cybernetic gadfly popped up as soon as I logged in. “Dave Miller,” it dutifully nagged, “you are now 15 minutes overdue for your appointment with the company fitness consultant.”
Right. I clicked the ‘ignore’ button to kill the message and then continued with my morning routine.
As soon as I brought up Outlook, though, the message returned: this time in red, and with a flag. It was on my calendar. At the top of my To-Do Bar. Waiting in my email inbox and claiming to be “Urgent.” I had just about enough time to sigh and swear, and then my phone chirped. It was Heather, from HR.
“Dave—”
I cut her off. “Heather, how many times do we have to go through this? I am six-foot-four. I weigh 165 pounds. My doctor says I’m skinny as a rail but healthy as a horse. I do not want to work out, I do not want to weight-train, I do not want to join the company’s charity plod-a-thon team, and above all I do not want to take some idiotic fitness test first thing this morning and then spend the rest of the day smelling like a sweaty goat. I have a meeting with—”
This time it was her turn to cut me off. “Sorry,” she said, “but Frank set this appointment up for you personally.”
Oh, great...
[...read the rest of the story...]
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S. TRAVIS BROWN has described himself as being both the former holder of the world’s record for cynicism and “an old guy who’s been there, done that, and with any luck, the statute of limitations has expired.” We do know he was once a very successful writer, until the winds of taste switched direction and the types of stories he liked to write fell out of favor. When his own agent advised him (just before dropping him) to adopt yet another new pen name, preferably female this time, and to start his career over again from scratch writing paranormal romances, he said “[intercourse] this, I am not Doctor Who” and decided to go do something else instead. We don’t hear from him often, but are always happy to use his stories when he’s willing to send one to us.
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