All those endless days spent analyzing and listening and fretting over every radio signal captured by Arecibo had broken my enthusiasm. The drone of static rising and fading; the computer graphics spiking and falling; the unrelenting sameness of it all had me on the brink of screaming!
The beach beckoned. I spent a day frolicking in the surf and frying in the sun.
I nearly dropped the conch shell I held to my ear. Its rhythmic static was breathtakingly familiar. I know what the universe is telling us from the vast ocean of space.
“Come on in, the water’s fine!”
Deven D Atkinson is a computer programmer living in rural Southern Ohio. Besides appearences at Every Day Fiction he has a story in “The Infinity Swords” anthology to be published by Carnivah House.
A new and interesting story is posted every day.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed! (what is rss)
Don’t miss another story! Subscribe to Every Day Fiction via RSS.
16 Responses to “MY DAY OFF FROM THE SETI PROJECT • by Deven D Atkinson”
Comments
« THE MANIFESTATION • by Nicholas Ozment | Home | THE INTERVIEW • by Kathleen Mack »


August 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
So crazy its brilliant!
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 am
Deven:
Short but sweet. I like it.
K.C.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 am
A brilliant wake-up call to a dawning Friday!
Bonnie!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 am
Ditto that Bonnie!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 am
A conch-ousness of the wonders of nature, to be sure.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:41 am
clever, interesting mini-story
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:16 am
Who’d have thought you could handle a topic this big in so few words? Very amusing, Deven.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:48 am
I knew there were aliens in my conch shell!
Concise and sweet, Devon.
–dj
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Refreshing!
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
As above, so below.
Sweet, Deven. I like what you said in so few words.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. It was a lot of fun squeezing this story into 100 words. I am pleased others like it as much as I do.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
If only NASA had that point of view!
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Excellent use of very few words. Well done.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Love it. Words of wisdom in a short, creative piece
August 27th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Wonderful. You know, you could probably turn this into an excellent poem if you tried.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Steve: I was consciously aware of a natural rhythm when I did my first edit pass. Camille, here at EDF, is great at suggesting paragraph breaks that give micro-flash stories poetic like pauses, but I didn’t make the connection. I guess I was too focused on making it a drabble.
You are right. Perhaps when the time comes to try and sell this as a reprint, I’ll format it in free verse.