Wilde Stories 2016 by Steve Berman

Author:Steve Berman [(ed.), Steve Berman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gay speculative fiction
Publisher: Lethe Press
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

TURNS OUT THAT ALIENS ARE pretty damn good at road trips. They have the stamina, yeah, to go across country like they were driving down the street for bread. They have the money, too, what with all the cash their people gave them, compensating for every possible emergency that might arise when they sent them down here. As for keeping ourselves under the radar, making sure my parents didn’t come looking for us, though we might, we agreed, go looking for them again someday to make our amends, we sent one of my replicas in my place. When we turned him on, he smiled at me, but he didn’t even look at Mickey, really. It was weird but kind of cool to see him walking around. He already had my memories and everything, so it was easy to drop him off in my parents’ driveway. I’m sure Mom and Dad loved that I came to my senses and no longer had Mickey around or even spoke of him anymore. As for the gay stuff, I don’t know if that’s the way the replica swung or even if I could say I swing that way or if Mickey’s replicas even have ways to swing or if people do. Maybe there’s just a lot of love and when it finds you, you do what you can with it.

The rest of the replicas we unplugged and drove, truckload by truckload, out to surrounding cities. This will create some confusion one of these days, to be certain, but it seemed like the best option, and besides I thought it was one damn funny practical joke. We gave Allen his replica, to do with what he wished, and he was sure psyched about that, though not so happy that we were leaving him. We told him that we’d be back one day and gave him the keys to our house, for him to do what he wanted in there. Maybe he’ll do great things with it. Maybe when Mickey’s people come looking, they’ll find Allen and take him up there with them and he’ll get some of what he’s always wanted.

I try not to think too hard about what’s going to happen or what did happen, just the good parts, like Mickey’s hand in mine, or the open windows in the car we bought, or the look of mountains, true-to-life mountains, and the way I feel when we drive toward them. And the look of the alien mask he snuck along, which he sometimes wears when he blows me, and how it’s never like you think it’ll be, this life stuff, which is something new I’m learning all the time.

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