Hughtopias

  Alexandra ver1c Short fiction by Hugh Tayler, 2022 September I had the garden hose and a trigger sprayer out washing pickle juice off the front sidewalk before it dried in the hot sun. I hoped it was pickle juice and those green things were pickles. Funny things happen when people put food on the Free Table. The table is mostly unsupervised and about 15% of the population has trouble behaving when not watched. I washed the pickles into the gutter and got the hose out of the way because there was a woman walking a dog down the sidewalk. She held up her hand to get my attention as she got closer. "Say there. Could I get some water for the Duke here? If it wouldn't be too much trouble, a bowl would be lovely." There were some mixed toys on the table in a small plastic bin. I dumped them gently onto the table, rinsed out the bin and filled it with water. She took it from me and put it down for the big short haired dog. "Danke - thanks. Thank you so much." She wa

A lot of fiction is cranked out to pay the rent. I understand and I admire the skills. I can type, but I found it easier to pack lumber and shovel concrete and dig splinters out of carpenters than to learn to write for a living.  But I was - am - addicted. First to comic books, then to speculative fiction. I am used to the regret of reading fiction that is a waste of time, short stories that lack personal insight and grand novels that show us no better way forward. But what I really regret are books with disturbing imagery that I wish I could un-read or just forget. Zelazny's "Creatures of Light and Darkness", Chabon's "Adventures of Kavalier and Klay", and Larry Niven's later Ringworld books with ghouls are a few examples.  And there are authors that I have learned to just stay away from: Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Jim Grant writing as Lee Child. And there are movie makers that I feel the same way about, with Tim Burton at the top of the list. So