“Anders in Exile” • by Andrew Jensen

The wild turkeys parading across the blueberry field looked alien.

When Anders fled to America for freedom from the Royal Swedish Jam-Crafter’s Guild, he hadn’t anticipated this feeling of dislocation.

Swedes loved their educated, egalitarian society. Everyone had the right to improve their skills and lives. But the Royal Ligonberry Jam recipe was a state secret known only to Guild Masters. Commoners were restricted to adulterated recipes that included inferior fruit, like chopped apples. 

Allemandrätten. All people have rights, including the right to make their national jam. Master Anders Karlsson posted the secret recipe online. Then he fled. He had no choice: the Guild had eyes and ears everywhere. Maybe even here in rural Maine.

Berries were Anders’ life, but now he shunned his beloved lingonberries and even those poseurs, cranberries. As camouflage he’d switched from red berries to blue.

The Americans were right: with great power comes great responsibility.

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Andrew Jensen has moved to New Brunswick with his family and too many dogs and cats. He has retired from the ministry, but of course, clergy never really retire. His stories have appeared in Canada, the USA, New Zealand, and the UK. This past summer, his work appeared in both Amazing Stories and James Gunn’s Ad Astra. 

If you enjoyed this story, you might also like to read his author profile, Six Questions for… Andrew Jensen, as well as these other stories.

“A Can of Piskies”

The elves’ latest plan to overthrow and conquer humanity was flawless and foolproof. All it required was the active cooperation of a large number of cats…

“Chapter 7”

There was a community uproar when the Golden Sandworm closed its doors… well, for a given value of ‘community.’ The guy with the bat’leth seemed pretty upset, but one mention of the police calmed him right down…

“Waxing Crescent”

25 years ago, the Moon disappeared. Really, is there anything more boring than commemorating something that happened to your parents? What can we do to make this interesting?

 

“Happy Anniversary?”

For some, the disappearance of the Moon was a prayer answered. For others, it was a heartache that would never go away.

“Running Away with the Cirque”

Even in the far future, even on strange new worlds, some people will still find their worlds just a little too small and dull, and dream of one day leaving it all behind and running away to somewhere else that’s fun and exciting.

STUPEFYING STORIES 24, by the way, is free to read on Kindle Unlimited. Check it out!

 

 

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The Pete Wood Challenge is an informal ad hoc story-writing competition. Once a month Pete Wood spots writers the idea for a story, usually in the form of a phrase or a few key words, along with some restrictions on what can be submitted, usually in terms of length. Pete then collects the resulting entries, determines who has best met the challenge, and sends the winners over to Bruce Bethke, who arranges for them to be published on the Stupefying Stories web site.

You can find all the previous winners of the Pete Wood Challenge at this link.

This time the challenge was to write a story of up to 150 words in length, keying off two of the following words: turkey, parade, football, fir tree, stocking, or cranberry. However, the story could not be about a holiday, a meal, or a gathering of relatives. 

PETE WOOD CHALLENGE #37
IS NOW OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO!

Categories: The Pete Wood Challenge