New Short Story: Tale of a Teenage Robot
I published a new short story – Tale of a Teenage Robot.
It started as a dream and turned into something I couldn’t stop thinking about. A suburban dad finds a gecko wearing self-made robotic armor in the garden. It grows. It absorbs Legos, a wifi router, drill bits. It evolves through what feels a lot like childhood – clumsy and eager at first, then sullen, then hostile. Somewhere along the way it stops chirping and starts talking back.
I wrote it in the voice of a guy who manages projects for a living and tries to manage this the same way. It doesn’t go well.
The story sits in a new Short Stories section of the site, with its own theme – something CRT-green and a little unsettling, which felt right for the material. There’s a chapter sidebar if you want to jump around, but it’s a 15-minute read straight through.
If you’re curious about what I think it’s actually about, there’s an author’s note at the end. But I’d rather you read it first and decide for yourself.