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Cast of Wonders 706: The Little Free Library at the End of the World

Cast of Wonders 706: The Little Free Library at the End of the World is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:01 — 27.5MB)

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The Little Free Library at the End of the World

by Sally Sultzman

Reader didn’t know they’d stopped until he ran into the back of Singer, who turned to steady him even as Collector ran into him, struggling under the weight of the Collection bag.

What? Reader signed. Maybe it was water. They hadn’t found any fresh water in days—and Leader had said last night that no one could drink until Tracker found more, or they stopped for the night.

Even through the mask, with his ears shielding his eyes, Reader’s throat was heavy with dust. He, Singer and Collector were always at the back of the pack and he was so, so thirsty.

Don’t know, Singer signed back to both him and Collector. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 705: Trade you for the Beans

Cast of Wonders 705: Trade you for the Beans is a Cast of Wonders original.

Bullies, Colonisation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:40 — 90.8MB)

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Trade You For the Beans

by Kehkashan Khalid

When Mammy drops me off to school on the hottest day of the year, no one bullies me. I stand there in the schoolyard, letting her I love yous wash over me, and when she drives away, I close my eyes.

It’s okay Asghar, I tell myself. They’ll punch you a few times, and when you don’t react, they’ll get bored. You can handle that.

But nobody comes. I stand there like an idiot with my eyes closed and my sweaty fingers gripping the spine of Grammy’s copy of Lord of the Rings until the bell rings. Nobody reads such old stories anymore, and they especially don’t carry them around like bricks. But I don’t want to download my stories into a cube that’ll summarize them for me. I like the rustle of the pages and their musty scent and holding them impossibly open with a thumb while I eat and read at the same time–Grammy would turn over in her grave, Asghar! Mammy would say. Grammy liked her books to look all perfect even after they’d been read. Too bad she left them all to me, who likes to make notes in the margins and leave big ol’ mango stains on the pages. It’s like they hold a little bit of who I am. And they’ll hold it long after I’m gone. It’s the closest to magic I’ll ever get. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 702: A Starry Sort of Hope

Cast of Wonders 702: A Starry Sort of Hope is a Cast of Wonders original.

death and grief

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:23 — 43.1MB)

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Show Notes

Image by Mollyroselee from Pixabay

A Starry Sort of Hope

by Torrance Elizabeth

Danika knew Astraea’s starship would never reach the stars.

It was a cardboard box, after all.

Even so, Danika stood on the shore at the edge of town and waited for the launch. They looked out at the silvery sea that stretched on long enough to reflect thousands of constellations from the inky sky above. Shh, shh, whispered the waves, curling in to kiss Danika’s bare feet before tip-toeing away again in an eternal game of peek-a-boo. Danika watched various townspeople mill about, all here to watch a loved one be sent into the stars. (Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 699: Little Wonders 53 – Doomed Relationships

Cast of Wonders 699: Little Wonders 53 – Doomed Relationships is a Cast of Wonders original.

post-apocalypse; prejudice

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:43 — 52.0MB)

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Petrichor

by Eleanor Lennox

The golden hour had begun, that time of honeyed sunshine and veiled shadows. Painted horses raced in perfect circles, their eyes unseeing rubies. Blue ribbons flapped on pies and pigs, jellies and quilts, all those strange, forgotten miracles. Waiting for the Ferris wheel, I saw him: a boy almost a man, looking out to the forest.

I approached.

“You’re not from here,” he said without turning back. (Continue Reading…)

banner art - digital theme

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Cast of Wonders 693: Twenty-Four Hours

First published in Clarkesworld, June 2024

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:59 — 56.3MB)

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Twenty-Four Hours

by H H Pak

Six hours left.

“What do you want to eat sweetheart?” She looks at me expectantly, holding out her phone to show me the menu. “It is your special day. I’ll get you anything you want.”

I smile, shake my hands. “Eomma, it’s fine. You don’t have to do this.”

“I know. But this is your favorite restaurant. Why not indulge a bit?” She hums as she scrolls through the options. “It must have been hard to get anything authentic out there. I can’t imagine the cafeteria on the base was giving you anything half edible.”

“It wasn’t bad,” I laugh. “Mostly processed stuff. They couldn’t import very often across the desert.”

She sighs.

“Well, you’re here now and that’s all that matters. You’re here, and I’m going to get you anything you want. How about this set?” (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 692: Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything

Originally published in Diabolical Plots, May 2025

Image by Jean-Marie from Pixabay

Ableism

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:13 — 36.0MB)

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Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything

by Effie Seiberg

The Super-Abled 501 Local Union building wasn’t ADA compliant.

I sat in my wheelchair next to the three steps that led to their front door, and groaned. My brand new laser eyes didn’t exactly fix my mobility problems.

Two weeks ago, I’d been zapped by a falling piece of alien spaceship debris and developed laser eyes. Ten days ago, I’d lost my job at the City Planner’s office because of budget cuts. I wasn’t even mad though, because I could never push my projects through and you know who gets stuff done without anyone getting in their way? The super-abled. As soon as I got home I filled in my union application.

Yesterday I’d gotten notice that I could join after I demonstrated my new laser eyes in person. And now here I was. Stuck. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 689: All these inscriptions are for me

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

First published in translunar travellers lounge in February 2025

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:33 — 35.1MB)

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All These Inscriptions Are for Me

by Carol Scheina

On the outside, there was no indication that the warehouse down the street from my apartment stocked its shelves with books from parallel universes.

It didn’t look like much: a chipped-brick box crammed between a mechanic’s shop and a medical supply depot. In front was an asphalt parking lot dotted with oil stains and flattened screws. The sign above it blinked “Books!” in a seedy-bar shade of neon red.

Money was tight because for one thing, the dentist’s office where I politely answered phones was temporarily closed for remodeling. And the other reason, which I didn’t like to think about, was because I was living on one income now that the divorce was finalized. I had to watch my budget, for there was rent and food, but still, I hungered for an escape between pages. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 685: Sunset at the Western Front

First published in ZBN Presents & ZBN Presents Year 2 in July 2024

Image by Iris,Helen,silvy from Pixabay

War. Multiple f-words.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:45 — 60.1MB)

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Sunset at the Western Front

by Christine Lucas

Millie craned her neck from behind the rusted bench to scout ahead. The overgrown square before her was what, fifty steps across? Five steps to the demolished kiosk slightly to her left. Then another ten steps to the cluster of the ever-present varnish trees a little to the right. If she kept her head low, she’d make it to the downed battlebot at the other side without being noticed—or followed. Deep in the Dead Zone, this area was patrol-free at this time of night. However, other scavengers had undoubtedly heard about the crashed chopper near the enemy lines. She needed the loot from that chopper; she hadn’t had a decent meal in days.

So Millie ran. And hid. And ran again. And ducked, and crouched in the crook of the battlebot’s armpit, a shadowy little alcove beneath the dented plates of its pauldrons. Humanoid in shape but three times the size of an average man, it now lay spread-eagle on its back, its pincers and stompers limp on the broken pavement. A gutsy spot for a human to seek shelter while other species roamed as they pleased. The battlebot had been left here long enough for flash floods to deposit soil into the crevices of its body. Dandelions sprouted all over, centipedes crawled in and out of bullet-holes, and another varnish tree grew out of the blast hole that had almost severed its torso from its legs. (Continue Reading…)

red headed woman with a camera

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 684: Little Wonders 49 – Aging Memories

Cast of Wonders 684: Little Wonders 49 – Aging Memories is a Cast of Wonders original.

Death, terminal illness, dementia. Some f-words.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:03 — 35.8MB)

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The Girl Detective

by Nadia Radovich

You: twelve, uncertain, under-dressed. The Girl Detective: fox-haired, quick-witted, fictional. Always zooming about, passport in one hand, magnifying glass in the other. Congenitally incapable of au-pairing in Madrid, skiing in the Alps, taking a train anywhere, without stumbling into some tantalizing mystery.

Your friend, Zofia: solving puzzles so fast that the Girl Detective never dies, not even in the game’s final level. You sit at her elbow, watching her deft mouse movements search chests, accuse suspects, dodge falling tiles. In the sunlight at recess you see the faint hint of fox color in her hair.

Then, in seventh grade, your friend Zofia: dead. You: at the funeral, the dim church light stealing all the copper from her hair, wondering if you only remembered it that way. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 681: Little Wonders 48 – Coping Mechanisms

Cast of Wonders 681: Little Wonders 48 – Coping Mechanisms is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:01 — 31.6MB)

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Show Notes

Episode art adapted from an image by Hello Cdd20 from Pixabay

A Chest Full of Storm Clouds

by Elisabeth Ring

It’s Philip’s text that finally does it.

“Happy birthday!” it says. Just those two words. Not, “Happy birthday! I miss you!” Not, “Happy birthday! I’m sorry!” Not, “I was wrong. I love you. Please take me back.”

Happy. Birthday. Exclamation mark.

As if the long, emotionally fraught blocks of text above it, mostly from me, and un-responded to by him, don’t exist. As if he hadn’t broken my heart in a million pieces even before he left. As if we’re the kind of friends you remember to text on their birthday but not well enough to come up with anything more creative than just “Happy birthday!”

Reading that text, I feel something break loose deep inside. I maybe haven’t been handling the breakup well to begin with, plus work has been extra tough lately and I’m going to have to juggle credit cards to pay for everything this month. This text just unleashes everything I’ve been keeping locked up and I know I need to get to a storm chamber or I might actually explode. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 677: Your Hold is Ready (Staff Picks 2025)

First published as Cast of Wonders 658, October 2025

homophobia, censorship, fascist dystopia

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:00 — 19.2MB)

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Your Hold Is Ready

by Laura Duerr

The news is spreading. We try to keep working through our English tests, but it’s becoming impossible to focus. Laughter and drumming call us to join the crowds on the streets, as irresistible as Odysseus’ sirens. I imagine myself tied to my desk chair, ears plugged up with wax instead of noise-canceling headphones, and chuckle to myself.

Mr. Lanigan leans around his monitor. “Molly, did you just giggle?”

“Possibly?”

Two storeys down, the crowd erupts with cheering. The students nearest the windows peer out wistfully. So does Mr. Lanigan. He ought to be retired by now, but he’s still here, and we’re glad. He’s kept a lot of our secrets and we’ve kept his. At first it was weird to watch out for someone so much older than us, but he stood up for us every chance he got, and somehow, together, our ordinary classroom discussions became outlets for us to be ourselves: to give voice to the dreams and hopes that had miraculously survived not just high school, but high school under all this.

(Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 675: Habitat (Staff Picks 2025)

Image by Kohji Asakawa from Pixabay

First published as Cast of Wonders 652, September 2025

spider-like creatures

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:55 — 53.4MB)

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Habitat

by Juliette Beauchamp

The orb appeared on a Friday. Just popped up in the northeast corner of the horse pasture, out where the grass grew thin and the ground was spotted with gopher holes. It was black and not a bit shiny despite the heat shimmers dancing around it. From a distance, as Cole and I rode along the dry creek bed, it looked more like the absence of something. A blank spot in the air.

It wasn’t until we got closer that we realized there was something there after all: a giant, dull marble suspended about three feet off the ground. The horses didn’t like it, rolling their eyes and snorting, but they were ranch-bred and broke and used to doing things they didn’t like.

Cole slid out of his saddle and passed his reins to me. I held his mare as she pawed and swished her tail while Cole walked over to the thing.

“It feels funny,” he said as he got closer. I wasn’t surprised to hear it since the hair on his head had begun to float upwards. (Continue Reading…)