Folkway
by Eric BrownDecember 16, 2021
This kind of thing happens a lot in Folkway. I wouldn't let it worry you; you'll get used to it, as strange as that might sound. Around four years ago, we had nine vanish right inside of Mac's Pharmacy. In broad daylight. Just poof, gone, and the only thing left was the clothes and the little things like you see here--wallets, rings, tooth fillings. We write up the forms and send those over to the main office in Briggs, where they look into it. Of course, nothing comes of it, but we don't make waves: not anymore. Well, Junior, would you mind handing me--
Ah... damn. Cunningham? Can you get me another form? Yeah, the new guy... I'll get the uniform in a box; I guess we'll throw in that prosthetic leg too... no, that's all right. Leave it in the shoe.
About Eric Brown
More from Eric Brown
Varah
I am over ten thousand years old, and I have led a strange and varied existence. For many years I was solitary, unloved, and hardly self-aware. I was a blind sentience, conscious of others like me in close proximity, and others very different from me. Then I was…
Dear LZ-75-53b
From: Department of Social Correction, Whitehall, London. 20th May, 2099. Dear Daniel Marchmont, To inform you: this is the third and final letter on the subject. According to government surveys conducted during the course of the last year, you have failed to meet your Minimum…
The Hunt
Roberts climbed the hillside and approached the forest, moving stealthily. For the past two hours he'd stalked the wise old stag up the valley, only for it to move off every time he came within range. He'd paid a thousand pounds to tramp the sodden glens for the privilege of…
The Alien Tithe
On the day allotted to me, I left Starship City with my sons and daughters and trekked through the mountains to the high dome of the aliens. On the first night we camped beneath the massed stars of the galactic core. We built a fire and ate roast vegetables grown on our own…
Diamond Doubles
The disappearance of the noted science fiction editor Dan Woolover around the 10th October, 1966 was a cause of great mystery, as were the other disappearances in the area of Tubb Street, Brooklyn, around the same time. However, letters discovered recently at Mr. Woolover's…
Visiting Planet Earth
I visit your planet from time to time, but it really is too painful. My race is immortal now, and our client races are immortal, too, or have transcended bodily form and exist in virtual realms, which is immortality by another route. But you humans are the only sentient beings…