SF/Fantasy

Where They Went

by Joseph HaldenJanuary 30, 2020

No one knew where they went.

They could have gone into the river, perhaps, to cascade among banks that never charged interest.

Maybe they went to another world, to float free and feel the morning dew from methane clouds.

Perhaps they became dark matter, flipping and flopping over their fins as they, too, vanished.

Or maybe they gathered together in a massive coliseum where the whole world spun for their entertainment, where the stars, the sun, and the moon all centered on them, and in the deepest twilight they could see their ancestors journeying across the ebony blanket of the universe.

It was possible.

I couldn't see far enough to know for sure.

As I poured another goldfish into the toilet and pressed the handle, I held onto enough hope for both of us.

About Joseph Halden

Joseph Halden is a wizard in search of magic, an astronaut in need of space, and a hopeless enthusiast of frivolity. He's shot things with giant lasers, worn an astronaut costume for over 100 days to try and get into space, and made his own soap. A graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, he writes science fiction and fantasy in the Canadian prairies.

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