It’s here, it’s here! Tuesday Teaser is here!
This time we have a brief commentary and teaser of a short story in an anthology.
L.N. Hunter shares another of her works with us!
L.N. Hunter says:
First Date tells the tale of a nervous young man going on a date in a post-pandemic world, where vaccines weren’t as successful as they were here. It appeared in the gorgeous anthology The Start (https://books2read.com/TheStartAnthology). Tiffany of Rebellion Lit has a great eye for stories—while most anthologies have some good stories and some not so good, every single one in The Start is a corker. (Perhaps I should put that differently: I thought every other story was great—I’m not going to pass comment on my own!)
If you want to read First Date, it’s also available for free at https://short-edition.com/en/story/short-fiction/first-date, but give yourself a treat and grab the anthology.
Here’s how the story starts:
I watched one of those old movies the other day—you know, from when nobody wore masks. It was a little disturbing to see all those naked mouths, and sometimes it was tricky to tell what was going on, since a lot of old-timey actors weren’t very good at showing their emotions in their eyes. Afterwards, I spent ages trying out different facial expressions in the bathroom mirror, trying to get my mouth to match what my eyes and eyebrows do naturally—it’s hard!
I got a DM from Remy as I was doing it—my SomaNet had tripped an alarm because of my elevated heartrate and breathing. It signaled everyone I’d registered as my health watchers. That’s Mum, my sister, best friend Joss, and Remy, of course. The others probably didn’t even notice, but Remy overreacted, as usual—I guess it’s kinda sweet that she worries so much.
I gave her a vidcall back, and she couldn’t help but laugh when I explained what I’d been doing. It was weird how the laughter in the movie differed from hers, as if the bottom halves of the actors’ faces were somehow loose while their foreheads were unnaturally static.
When she stopped laughing, she asked, “Still coming over tomorrow?”
I felt a sudden chill, and wondered if she noticed that on SomaNet. I swallowed. “Sure, nothing can keep me away.”
Her eyes smiled back at me, and I resisted the temptation to check her vitals on SomaNet to see if she was worried about the visit, too.
My eighteenth birthday was a couple of weeks ago. We’ve talked every day since then about a real-world visit, but the confirmation email allowing me to go outside unaccompanied only turned up yesterday.
Take a look at this anthology here: https://books2read.com/TheStartAnthology
If you like short stories, you might enjoy these novellas:
