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Book Club: Ghost Summer (Part 2) · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
0:07
Speaker 1: I've never told you Protection by Hurt Radio.
0:18
Speaker 2: And welcome to part two of our book club. I
0:22
Speaker 2: guess it's a good thing we did do it, like
0:24
Speaker 2: we skipped the month, having two episodes dedicated to this
0:27
Speaker 2: one book. Worth it, by the way, worth it? And
0:31
Speaker 2: what are we talking about if you have missed this
0:34
Speaker 2: previous recording. We're talking about our feminist book club pick,
0:37
Speaker 2: which is called Ghosts Summer. Bye. Tanana Reeved. Ghost Summer
0:42
Speaker 2: is her first collection of short stories that she published
0:45
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, and it is a beauty. It has
0:48
Speaker 2: won many awards, deservedly. So a couple of these tales
0:53
Speaker 2: have turned into productions. Yeah, we need to go check
0:56
Speaker 2: that out. I think actually it should be all our
1:00
Speaker 2: horror lists. Why not come on? But yeah, so we
1:04
Speaker 2: have made it. I don't know if it's halfway through
1:06
Speaker 2: on the act in the actual book, but in our
1:08
Speaker 2: halfway through point. And we are back with part two,
1:12
Speaker 2: and just again with the content warning. We are talking
1:15
Speaker 2: about some dark stuff. It is some dark historical horror
1:19
Speaker 2: with enslavement, death, murder, disease, apocalypse. I'm trying to think
1:27
Speaker 2: anything else that I should add to that list. Dystopian hopelessness, existentialism,
1:35
Speaker 2: no brief mentions of sexual assault, but we're not going
1:38
Speaker 2: to talk about it.
1:39
Speaker 1: But if you get the book, you'll yes.
1:43
Speaker 2: So yeah, So we are back and we're picking back
1:46
Speaker 2: up in the middle of it with Aftermoon. And interestingly,
1:50
Speaker 2: so we ended last one with the cloning one called
1:54
Speaker 2: Like Daughter, and this one also felt like it was
1:57
Speaker 2: completely separate because a lot of this is interlinked, a
2:01
Speaker 2: lot of her stories are interlinked, but these two were
2:04
Speaker 2: like kind of on its own. Because it did I
2:06
Speaker 2: was say, oh, wait, what are we talking about? Because
2:09
Speaker 2: it took me a minute to adjust to what we
2:11
Speaker 2: were listening to. And this story After Moon is one
2:15
Speaker 2: of those stories. So in this story, we meet Kenya
2:18
Speaker 2: who discovers a dermatologist who advertises to be an expert
2:23
Speaker 2: in licanthropy. So were wolves And it took me a
2:27
Speaker 2: minute to figure that out. I'm not gonna lie. I
2:29
Speaker 2: was like, wait, are we talking about? Where wolves? Here?
2:31
Speaker 1: We are? We are?
2:32
Speaker 2: We are? Essentially, she's talking about her experience after the moon,
2:37
Speaker 2: the full moon that's called After Moon, where she kind
2:40
Speaker 2: of has a relief to being her normal, normal form
2:45
Speaker 2: even though she still needs her bloody raw steak and
2:49
Speaker 2: was craving one for the night. But she did see
2:51
Speaker 2: this side was a little bit angry. I was like,
2:53
Speaker 2: this is not funny, and I'm gonna go tell him so.
2:56
Speaker 2: So she walks into this office, but because again she
3:01
Speaker 2: was offended. But all of a sudden, as she walks in,
3:04
Speaker 2: she becomes somewhat hypnotized by the music and the atmosphere.
3:08
Speaker 2: She talks about the sense and how she didn't know
3:09
Speaker 2: what to do, and it all calmed her and she
3:11
Speaker 2: really liked it and she was drawn to it there.
3:15
Speaker 2: Soon after, she was greeted by doctor Jack, who throws
3:19
Speaker 2: her a thing of rowney here and she gobbles it up.
3:24
Speaker 1: It is very excited.
3:25
Speaker 2: He immediately knew what and who she was. It turns
3:29
Speaker 2: out he was not joking when he put that on
3:31
Speaker 2: the sign. He understood her conditions so much so that
3:34
Speaker 2: she did come back. She realized he may be actually helpful.
3:38
Speaker 2: At first, she was just like, Eh, I don't know
3:40
Speaker 2: if you can do anything for me. Are you one
3:42
Speaker 2: of those people who are trying to find your people? Like?
3:45
Speaker 2: Are you trying to wife me? Because I don't want
3:47
Speaker 2: to be with you? Or are you actually trying to help?
3:50
Speaker 2: He talks about how he does groups. They do outings
3:53
Speaker 2: together where they go and do their thing as crew,
3:58
Speaker 2: their wolf thing. He talks about people coming to see
4:01
Speaker 2: him to treat different symptoms, as he says, including hairiness.
4:06
Speaker 2: Talks about a person who comes from DC to see him,
4:09
Speaker 2: travels on the train to come and see him, and
4:11
Speaker 2: that really fascinates her because she's like, who is this
4:13
Speaker 2: person that would travel calmly to come here and get treatment.
4:18
Speaker 2: So she kind of has this both hope and kind
4:20
Speaker 2: of doubt about what he can do, especially with her
4:24
Speaker 2: grandfather who has taught her to really fully embrace the
4:28
Speaker 2: wolf in her, like that is a shame to buy
4:30
Speaker 2: me instead of hunting for it, that to be hairy
4:33
Speaker 2: is to be glorious type of conversation, and she hates this,
4:37
Speaker 2: especially because her parents are not like this, and they've
4:40
Speaker 2: done so much try to hide that to the point
4:44
Speaker 2: I don't think the father even knows. Her father even knows.
4:46
Speaker 1: About this condestion.
4:49
Speaker 2: She just kind of her mother hit her away by
4:51
Speaker 2: sending her to the grandfather's house because she was too
4:55
Speaker 2: ashamed of this condition, which came out at her childhood
4:58
Speaker 2: in her childhood actually after a dog bit her, yes, which,
5:02
Speaker 2: by the way, the doctor was like, that's not a thing,
5:05
Speaker 2: that's a She's like, well that happened to me, and
5:08
Speaker 2: it's like, eh, someone's lying here, but okay, I'll take
5:11
Speaker 2: your ward for it. Like it's somewhat condescending, yeah, but
5:14
Speaker 2: at the same time also very like empathetic, also trying
5:19
Speaker 2: to make some money, so all those things are happening here.
5:23
Speaker 2: But she does return and she talks about what she wanted,
5:26
Speaker 2: which is to help with her hairiness. So she has
5:28
Speaker 2: spots off her chest, to the point that she got
5:30
Speaker 2: humiliated as a young girl when making out with a
5:33
Speaker 2: boy and found her patch of hairy chest and she
5:37
Speaker 2: was so upset she didn't ever want to think about
5:39
Speaker 2: it again. She's currently engaged to a person who doesn't
5:42
Speaker 2: have that condition, so doesn't understand what that is. And
5:45
Speaker 2: when the doctor asks what she does when she does
5:48
Speaker 2: see him, she shaves or he's never seen her or
5:50
Speaker 2: like that. So yeah, two of those options. And he's boring,
5:53
Speaker 2: but she's okay with boring because he at least likes
5:59
Speaker 2: her kind of conversation.
6:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, she made him sound like he's very sweet, very
6:04
Speaker 1: very nice. Yeah.
6:07
Speaker 2: So while they were talking about the conditions and her
6:09
Speaker 2: grandfather and all these things and the family members, she
6:11
Speaker 2: talks about why she wants to lead a normal life,
6:14
Speaker 2: including trying to you know, stay away from the phases,
6:18
Speaker 2: and why she needs to scream. He offers the scream
6:21
Speaker 2: that she has to put on this time is the day,
6:23
Speaker 2: and how it will get rid of it. It is
6:24
Speaker 2: very expensive, but it works. He also is trying to
6:27
Speaker 2: get her to come to these retreats and meet some
6:30
Speaker 2: of the others and very surprised when she says she doesn't.
6:33
Speaker 2: She's not interested, and he pretty much.
6:35
Speaker 1: Says good luck, good luck with your your life.
6:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, normal life, Good luck with that. And that's how
6:42
Speaker 2: we end. Like it was such an interesting like you
6:45
Speaker 2: have a monster what we would understand as a monster,
6:49
Speaker 2: just being like, eh, trying to be normal.
6:53
Speaker 1: Like talking about getting hair waxed.
6:57
Speaker 2: He's like, oh my god, stop doing that. That's going
7:00
Speaker 2: to be painful and it's not going to help you.
7:02
Speaker 2: You're going to have a condition. Well the doctor was
7:04
Speaker 2: quite funny to be yeah, and I was like I
7:06
Speaker 2: thought maybe he was a predator at first, Well like,
7:08
Speaker 2: oh no, he's not. Okay, Yeah, he's just I was.
7:11
Speaker 1: I was giving him the side I at first, but
7:14
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, she was.
7:15
Speaker 2: Going to go to the side eye, So what was
7:16
Speaker 2: with her? I was like, all right, what was this?
7:19
Speaker 2: So essentially this is about trying to live through her
7:21
Speaker 2: heartshes but hoping to ignore the problem, as well as
7:24
Speaker 2: the fact that it's just a part of who she
7:25
Speaker 2: is and her not want to accept that because no
7:28
Speaker 2: one around her would.
7:30
Speaker 1: Yes, and if you haven't listened to part one, So
7:32
Speaker 1: at the end of these short stories, do you gives
7:34
Speaker 1: her like what prompt caused her to write this? Where
7:38
Speaker 1: it was included I usually had another publication or something
7:41
Speaker 1: and she talked about this one. I thought this was
7:44
Speaker 1: really interesting because you can apply it in a lot
7:46
Speaker 1: of ways in terms of, you know, just being a
7:49
Speaker 1: woman and being told you to get rid of hair,
7:51
Speaker 1: unwanted hair, right, heating certain things or stuff like that,
7:58
Speaker 1: and the fact that it ends there where it's that
8:02
Speaker 1: you don't know if she's gonna have this happy, normal
8:05
Speaker 1: life or if she might kind of embrace what her
8:08
Speaker 1: grandfather kept telling her, right and go meet up with
8:11
Speaker 1: that guy from DC. She was so interested in.
8:14
Speaker 2: That DC moment. I was like she really I want
8:16
Speaker 2: them to meet too, because she has this envisioning of
8:19
Speaker 2: him living this normal life, being honest, and that's that conversation,
8:22
Speaker 2: like what is this normal life? Commuting on a train
8:25
Speaker 2: to come see a doctor, a specialist, that's normal, But
8:29
Speaker 2: the trying to gather and go have retreats, that's not
8:32
Speaker 2: normal for her.
8:33
Speaker 1: Right, And she was just really interested because she hadn't
8:37
Speaker 1: really had a connection outside of her grandfather with anybody else. Right,
8:41
Speaker 1: So you know, you got this group, and you've got
8:42
Speaker 1: somebody who's willing to travel because it was taking place
8:44
Speaker 1: in New York, so willing to travel from DC to
8:47
Speaker 1: New York to find this doctor and to find this group.
8:53
Speaker 1: It was really it was an interesting story. It kind
8:55
Speaker 1: of reminded me of that game we played that we
8:57
Speaker 1: talked about coffee talk.
9:00
Speaker 2: You know, just come in and just like chilling.
9:03
Speaker 1: So wearabole. Oh yeah that's cool. That's a vampire. Yeah,
9:06
Speaker 1: I just want coffee. It's okay as.
9:09
Speaker 2: An alien the whole time? Okay, alert, But it was
9:15
Speaker 2: I think, and it was not your typical horror. It
9:18
Speaker 2: was just like a huh with horror characters.
9:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one was much more of kind of a.
9:24
Speaker 1: I think the only heart to me that was like
9:26
Speaker 1: a horror was like, oh god, this doctor, I don't
9:28
Speaker 1: know what's up, so it's like anticipatory horror.
9:30
Speaker 2: It was.
9:31
Speaker 1: It was actually very kind of cute, interesting.
9:35
Speaker 2: Story actually, like cute for like just the normal conversation
9:39
Speaker 2: but for monsters. And they're not monsters. Yeah, if were
9:43
Speaker 2: wolves exist, and I'm going to offend them, but yeah,
9:46
Speaker 2: yeah a monster unless you kill people, don't don't kill people.
9:50
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and just like how he throws like raw
9:53
Speaker 1: meat at her and.
9:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was a nice little interest like oh okay, okay, okay.
10:00
Speaker 2: But with that we come back to more of her
10:03
Speaker 2: themes that we have seen throughout in this one called
10:06
Speaker 2: Trial Day, and that we have Letitia, who is a
10:10
Speaker 2: young girl living with her father and stepmother, but she
10:15
Speaker 2: also talks about her half brother, Wallace, who lives a
10:18
Speaker 2: day's drive away, is what it says, and she called
10:20
Speaker 2: him brother because of his love and kindness towards her,
10:23
Speaker 2: like brother so and so, but like just brother. Her stepmother, however,
10:27
Speaker 2: did not like her, did like Wallace the same she
10:31
Speaker 2: did like brothers. She like he can make her laugh.
10:33
Speaker 2: But you know, we don't know too much. But she
10:36
Speaker 2: also stepmother doesn't seem to like the father, like the
10:39
Speaker 2: person she's married to either. She just kind of looked
10:43
Speaker 2: at all of them with disdain essentially. And one of
10:46
Speaker 2: the things that I forgot to add in while I
10:48
Speaker 2: was writing this is that Letitia can see truth essentially,
10:52
Speaker 2: she can see fear, she can see how you're feeling. Like,
10:54
Speaker 2: so she knew her stepmother hated her, even if her
10:57
Speaker 2: stepmother never said it, she can see it. Kind of
11:00
Speaker 2: a gift she has. But for Letitia, she missed her brother,
11:04
Speaker 2: who was always loving and kind to her, and he
11:06
Speaker 2: was gone for a while, to the point she started
11:09
Speaker 2: wondering why he wasn't coming back. She soon learned that
11:12
Speaker 2: he was in jail, like reports were showing that he
11:14
Speaker 2: had gone to jail, but she learned more detail through
11:17
Speaker 2: a letter that the NAACP sent to her father, and
11:20
Speaker 2: she finds out that brother was arrested for armed robbery
11:23
Speaker 2: of a white man's shop who hates him. Apparently they
11:27
Speaker 2: had a whole thing previously. Of course, there is racism,
11:32
Speaker 2: as the testimonies were different, so different people said different
11:34
Speaker 2: things about whether or not he had a gun. The
11:37
Speaker 2: NAACP requested that his father, her father come to the
11:41
Speaker 2: trial to help his son's case as an upstanding businessman,
11:45
Speaker 2: or that maybe brother maybe executed as several other young
11:49
Speaker 2: black men had been recently under false preceenses like saying
11:53
Speaker 2: that they did these things and we know this falsely
11:55
Speaker 2: accused of crimes in order to put a death sentence
11:59
Speaker 2: or them in jail longer, or sometimes just to lynch them.
12:04
Speaker 2: When Letitia asked her father at dinner if he was going,
12:08
Speaker 2: he said he wasn't and try to make her be quiet.
12:11
Speaker 2: Like everything got very upsetting because she wasn't supposed to know. Obviously,
12:15
Speaker 2: she went and read a letter she wasn't supposed to,
12:17
Speaker 2: so everything kind of got into up people stepmother. She
12:21
Speaker 2: becomes very upset, reminding him he promised he wouldn't, making
12:25
Speaker 2: Letitia get more upset about it, and him swearing he wouldn't.
12:29
Speaker 2: He wouldn't, he wouldn't. So this goes back and forth,
12:31
Speaker 2: and Letitia is upset and they he forces her into
12:35
Speaker 2: her room because he's trying to get her to be quiet. Later,
12:38
Speaker 2: Letitia goes to see her own mother, who I think
12:41
Speaker 2: they essentially call her a voodoo woman in the actual story,
12:45
Speaker 2: and she has no teeth, but it's still beautiful and
12:47
Speaker 2: does a lot of spells. But so she Letitia goes
12:51
Speaker 2: to see her mother at this time, who her mother
12:56
Speaker 2: says that the stepmother had a strong hold on the
13:00
Speaker 2: father and that her powers and magic was more powerful
13:03
Speaker 2: than her own, and that Letitia was the only one
13:06
Speaker 2: who could break that hold and she had to do
13:10
Speaker 2: it by sacrificing her cat named Midnight at Midnight yep.
13:15
Speaker 1: The mother was like that you knew when you named her. Yeah.
13:19
Speaker 2: And by the way, it's at this point just side
13:22
Speaker 2: note that I'm like, do I fast forward past this
13:24
Speaker 2: because oh my god? What. So she's saying that she
13:29
Speaker 2: has to take something she loves and sacrifice it and
13:31
Speaker 2: bleed it in order to free this curse, like no
13:34
Speaker 2: chickens will do it. All these things, and Latitia loves
13:36
Speaker 2: her cat. She loves her cat. Latitia was sad about
13:40
Speaker 2: it and went back and forth about why she should
13:42
Speaker 2: or if she shouldn't, and she finally like had to say,
13:45
Speaker 2: I have to do this for my brother. I have
13:46
Speaker 2: to save my brother. And while she was trying, she
13:50
Speaker 2: does get a poke in there, but her father actually
13:53
Speaker 2: stops her. There is blood, but the cat is okay. Yes,
13:56
Speaker 2: the cat is okay, and the father stops angry and
14:01
Speaker 2: like gets upset and takes her back to the room.
14:04
Speaker 2: And but it is that same night he packs his
14:07
Speaker 2: bags and hes to the trial against step mothers begging
14:11
Speaker 2: and pleading and forcing him trying to stay, and she
14:15
Speaker 2: finally and he finally goes, and Letitia is able to
14:17
Speaker 2: break that hold, and that's how the story ends.
14:24
Speaker 1: Yep, it's a lot. It was a lot. That also
14:30
Speaker 1: was another one that went places I wasn't expecting. But okay,
14:34
Speaker 1: du said about this one quote, I wanted to fix
14:37
Speaker 1: a broken piece of my family history. My grandmother, the
14:40
Speaker 1: late Lottie Powell Sears Houston, clearly remembered her half brother
14:44
Speaker 1: being on trial for his life and her father was
14:47
Speaker 1: too intimidated to testify on his behalf, which she considered
14:50
Speaker 1: cowardly for the rest of her life, though I can
14:52
Speaker 1: only imagine that institutional racism standing in his way. Her
14:56
Speaker 1: brother died on death row. Did brother die in this story?
15:00
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe not, but at least Letitia gave her father's
15:04
Speaker 1: strength enough to try right.
15:07
Speaker 2: For When I read that that, my heart like even now,
15:11
Speaker 2: my heart just like feels like it's being squeezed because
15:14
Speaker 2: she understanding like generational trauma and like wanting to fix
15:20
Speaker 2: that and what could you do if you fix that?
15:23
Speaker 2: There's so much in that conversation because exactly as she's saying,
15:26
Speaker 2: institutional racism, because the father goes back and forth and
15:29
Speaker 2: talking about how his testimony won't do anything because in
15:33
Speaker 2: the end it will just ruin his reputation and not
15:35
Speaker 2: help his son's reputation. So this back and forth about
15:38
Speaker 2: like they will use it against him to take his
15:40
Speaker 2: stuff away or accuse him of being on the same
15:43
Speaker 2: level as an armed robber, and that is that is
15:46
Speaker 2: that conversation of like what really happens? Does this help
15:50
Speaker 2: or does this hurt? And who does it help? And
15:53
Speaker 2: who does it hurt? And him talking about the NAACP
15:56
Speaker 2: being corrupt and just trying to make money and that
15:59
Speaker 2: if they can't help, then how can he help? Like
16:01
Speaker 2: that there was this hole back and forth which is
16:03
Speaker 2: too real, Like there's so many in this conversation, especially
16:07
Speaker 2: those who are like marginalized and intersectionally marginalized, like what
16:13
Speaker 2: is the helpful part and what is putting me at
16:15
Speaker 2: harm's risk? And that level of understanding, how do I
16:20
Speaker 2: keep my family safe. What if this causes more harm
16:22
Speaker 2: for my family. There's so many things, and not that
16:25
Speaker 2: he's not family, but like in this level of family,
16:29
Speaker 2: and like there's so much in that depth. And Letitia
16:32
Speaker 2: talking about sacrificing her something that she loves for her
16:36
Speaker 2: brother and like how she can do this and doesn't
16:38
Speaker 2: really help, but what if it doesn't help, And then
16:40
Speaker 2: her praying that this is like about the story of
16:44
Speaker 2: Abraham and Isaac, about like him being told he has
16:46
Speaker 2: to sacrifice his son, but to him being stopped and
16:48
Speaker 2: they just need to see the willingness and hoping for
16:51
Speaker 2: that as well, in which it did turn out that way. Yeah,
16:54
Speaker 2: So there's that it was such a depth of story
16:59
Speaker 2: and the fact that it was based on something that
17:01
Speaker 2: did occur. Because even today we know people, especially people
17:05
Speaker 2: of colored men, of black men, women of color, black
17:08
Speaker 2: women are unjustly punished. So they may have done something, sure,
17:14
Speaker 2: but the amount of sentencing and the persecution level is
17:19
Speaker 2: so disjointed and unjust, and it's happening today. We've seen it.
17:24
Speaker 2: We've seen so many things and how society really does
17:27
Speaker 2: look down on people of different economic places. So it's
17:34
Speaker 2: just it's heartbreaking. So this one got me. I was like,
17:37
Speaker 2: oh god, oh Latitia, don't kill the cat. No, I know, y'all,
17:43
Speaker 2: it was too much. I was like, no, why do.
17:47
Speaker 2: By the way, apparently do really loves cats. She does
17:50
Speaker 2: say that she has her own cats, themes of cats throughout.
17:54
Speaker 1: Also the cat Midnight, and the story was like, no fakes,
18:00
Speaker 1: it's like come back.
18:01
Speaker 2: At first she was like no, he said, yeah, go ahead,
18:03
Speaker 2: I understand, and then was like hell no, was like,
18:06
Speaker 2: don't touch me. Ever again, what did you do rightly?
18:14
Speaker 1: So that's fair enough.
18:18
Speaker 2: So there's that one, and we're coming back to another one.
18:31
Speaker 2: Maybe it was just the placement of the back to
18:33
Speaker 2: back of these stories, because this one's another one that
18:35
Speaker 2: was like ripping at my heart, like I had to.
18:38
Speaker 2: I think I was listening to it in the car
18:40
Speaker 2: and I had to sit in the car after apart
18:42
Speaker 2: for a good minute because I was like what yeah.
18:44
Speaker 1: And just a note about this one before we get
18:46
Speaker 1: into it. It's written as like journal entries from a
18:51
Speaker 1: little boy, which I have a story like that. Oh okay,
18:55
Speaker 1: maybe we.
18:55
Speaker 2: Shall No, it's a very short story.
18:59
Speaker 1: Short stories. These are short story it is.
19:01
Speaker 2: I don't know if I have a collection, okay, but
19:04
Speaker 2: here we go. So Patient zero is the title of
19:06
Speaker 2: this one is we meet a young boy Jay, who
19:09
Speaker 2: is in isolation. He was considered patient zero though, as
19:13
Speaker 2: he says, his father is the one that passed the
19:16
Speaker 2: virus to him and his entire family. But he got
19:19
Speaker 2: that from a job he was on while traveling on
19:22
Speaker 2: I believe a ship. But Jay was alive and he
19:25
Speaker 2: seemed okay. His whole family was not okay. All of
19:29
Speaker 2: them died one by one by one. He had his doctor,
19:33
Speaker 2: doctor Ben, his favorite nurse Veronica, and his tutor, Missus Mannigot,
19:38
Speaker 2: who often came to see him. Yes, the story is
19:41
Speaker 2: in journal form. Jay was given in order to pass
19:45
Speaker 2: his days and keep a record. We learned that the
19:48
Speaker 2: staff actually stopped him from watching TV as he had
19:52
Speaker 2: seen something disturbing and upsetting reports about him. Yeah, so
19:56
Speaker 2: they took all that away and gave him like tapes,
19:58
Speaker 2: and then slowly they just started taking all the away.
20:01
Speaker 2: He received an autograph picture of Dan Marino and even
20:04
Speaker 2: received a call from the President saying that they were
20:07
Speaker 2: rooting for him. He later thinks that Dan Marino's autograph
20:10
Speaker 2: looks similar to doctor Ben. But you know. He tries
20:13
Speaker 2: not to think about it that too hard. His family,
20:16
Speaker 2: like we said, have all died due to this disease,
20:18
Speaker 2: even his aunt who had come to help before knowing
20:21
Speaker 2: what was making them sick, and he talks about how
20:25
Speaker 2: he wished she never came.
20:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.
20:28
Speaker 2: Soon after the incident of Veronica accidentally pokes herself with
20:32
Speaker 2: a needle, causing a tear in her suit, and we
20:36
Speaker 2: find out that she has died from the same illness,
20:39
Speaker 2: and we slowly see people disappearing from his life. The
20:43
Speaker 2: last person he interacts with is miss Mannegatt, who gives
20:48
Speaker 2: him the code to the doors, because all the codes
20:50
Speaker 2: and all the things in the hospital are secured with
20:52
Speaker 2: codes to leave if he's alone and is getting hungry,
20:57
Speaker 2: so she sees. She brings him a cold oatmeal. That's
21:00
Speaker 2: the last thing he gets if he tells him this code.
21:04
Speaker 2: Throughout this time, the powers flickering off and on in
21:06
Speaker 2: the building. He can't figure out what's going on. People
21:08
Speaker 2: have slowly disappeared, people are kind of being mean to him,
21:11
Speaker 2: like all these different things, and that day comes where
21:15
Speaker 2: he is all alone and hungry. At one point, the
21:17
Speaker 2: power is out and he doesn't know what to do
21:19
Speaker 2: because he can't get out because all these secure doors
21:22
Speaker 2: are operated through the electricity. Finally, the power does come
21:25
Speaker 2: out and he leaves the hospital. He goes downstairs with
21:27
Speaker 2: the kitchen first, because he knows he can. He doesn't
21:30
Speaker 2: want to get anybody sick, and by the way, that's
21:31
Speaker 2: a big thing. He doesn't want to get anybody sick,
21:34
Speaker 2: and he knows that he is getting people sick, so
21:37
Speaker 2: he's trying to stay behind. But he goes to the
21:40
Speaker 2: kitchen and there's no food left, and so he moves
21:44
Speaker 2: on and leaves a note in his journal that says,
21:49
Speaker 2: I am going to get food, but I promise I
21:51
Speaker 2: will come right back and stay in isolation. Please just
21:55
Speaker 2: I'll be back. I'm so sorry. But he comes out
21:59
Speaker 2: into the parking lot and sees that it is desolate.
22:01
Speaker 2: There's nobody around and everybody is gone, and he goes
22:05
Speaker 2: out to go find food. Yep, y'all, I'm upset about
22:13
Speaker 2: it right now. I'm thinking about this, essentially, she writes.
22:16
Speaker 2: Do writes that this was about isolation and loneliness and innocence,
22:20
Speaker 2: and it is. He is upbeat throughout. He talks about
22:24
Speaker 2: how he doesn't write when he's sad, and so he
22:26
Speaker 2: comes back and like and each date is each day
22:28
Speaker 2: is dated or what day was, and with these and
22:32
Speaker 2: the slow and how like miss Manna got even to
22:34
Speaker 2: the end, was fighting for him because she volunteered to
22:38
Speaker 2: come and see him to begin with, to tutor him.
22:41
Speaker 2: And then she fought against the doctor. After doctor Ben
22:44
Speaker 2: dies or disappears, another doctor comes and she has to
22:48
Speaker 2: fight with him to come and see him. Comes. Yeah, yeah,
22:52
Speaker 2: and she tells him the truth. She's the one person
22:55
Speaker 2: no matter what, even if it's not great. If it's
22:58
Speaker 2: not great, then she doesn't want to share. She says,
23:01
Speaker 2: we're not talking about this right now, or you don't
23:03
Speaker 2: need to know this right now, but she doesn't lie
23:05
Speaker 2: to him.
23:06
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And they were taking like a lot of
23:12
Speaker 1: blood from him and trying to study him. So I
23:15
Speaker 1: could see that throughout. But it was really heartbreaking because
23:18
Speaker 1: he was so upbeat and he did like hearing him
23:24
Speaker 1: write as a child and knowing like you see, you
23:28
Speaker 1: see these adults come in, but you can't entirely get
23:31
Speaker 1: the full picture of what's going on, but you know
23:34
Speaker 1: it's bad, it is not good, right, And so that
23:39
Speaker 1: juxtaposition of having kind of this innocence and this hopefulness
23:44
Speaker 1: and these connections to Veroniga who died and then mismana
23:50
Speaker 1: god and then kind of finding out at the end. Yeah,
23:57
Speaker 1: it's just as bad as I ought it the rest.
24:01
Speaker 2: So this actually starts the apocalypse portion of the book.
24:06
Speaker 2: So the next four more stories will be about essentially
24:10
Speaker 2: the end apocalypse. So it is that theme throughout. So
24:16
Speaker 2: buckle in.
24:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like, ooh, zombies, which alert they are
24:24
Speaker 1: going to be zombies later.
24:27
Speaker 2: Actually right now, I think, so, yeah, let's jump into
24:31
Speaker 2: this into the next one called danger Word. We have
24:35
Speaker 2: Kendrick who is currently staying with Grandpa, So this is
24:39
Speaker 2: where we're at during the time of infection, maybe the apocalypse.
24:43
Speaker 2: Kendrick had escaped his home and was now living with
24:46
Speaker 2: his grandpa, who had rescued him. Things had been bleak
24:49
Speaker 2: and scary, but he was learning to survive with his
24:52
Speaker 2: rough and tough grandfather. So this grandfather's kind of like a.
24:58
Speaker 1: End of time survive survival is a prepper.
25:02
Speaker 2: A prepper not intense, but like he was ready, like
25:06
Speaker 2: at this point he had the things ready to go.
25:08
Speaker 2: The day that they we read the story, they decided
25:11
Speaker 2: to head to a gas station to get supplies and
25:13
Speaker 2: maybe even a coke for Kendrick, who had requested it,
25:16
Speaker 2: which was the first time he's spoken to his grandfather
25:19
Speaker 2: since arriving at his Grandpa Joe's and his Grandpa Joe
25:22
Speaker 2: Uh he had hidden previously, right before he was rescued.
25:26
Speaker 2: He had hidden in the safe room and was waiting
25:29
Speaker 2: for his grandpa to come out. And they had a
25:32
Speaker 2: danger word, and this danger word was the only way
25:35
Speaker 2: he would come out. And his mom was like, do
25:37
Speaker 2: not let anybody in unless it's your grandpa saying the
25:40
Speaker 2: danger word. And not even his mom or dad knew
25:43
Speaker 2: this word. It was just between Kendrick and Grandpa Joe.
25:48
Speaker 2: So they're back. And as they were making their way
25:51
Speaker 2: to the store, Grandpa Joe was hyper vigilant of the surroundings,
25:55
Speaker 2: like wouldn't let it, wouldn't slow down for anybody, kept moving,
25:58
Speaker 2: reminding Kendrick how to use the gun he had given
26:02
Speaker 2: and how to be careful. So like every step of
26:04
Speaker 2: the way is teaching Kendrick to survive and what to
26:06
Speaker 2: look out for and how to survive. Arriving at the
26:10
Speaker 2: gas station, they see the owner, Mike. So in between
26:14
Speaker 2: all this, I will say Kendrick was given an option
26:16
Speaker 2: to stay with a neighbor who is called the dog Lady,
26:19
Speaker 2: or to come with her grandpa. And because he actually
26:22
Speaker 2: said words, Grandpa was so excited and had to fulfill
26:25
Speaker 2: his wish, which was to get a coke. So he
26:28
Speaker 2: was like, come on, and this was kind of that
26:30
Speaker 2: driving force of why they were going to the grocery store. Yes,
26:32
Speaker 2: they needed supplies, but now the grand Grandpa Joe had
26:34
Speaker 2: even more motivation. He had to get him this drink.
26:37
Speaker 2: So arriving at the gas station, they see the owner, Mike,
26:39
Speaker 2: who has been enough friend of Grandpa Joe's for a
26:41
Speaker 2: long while, who seems a bit weird, but he's coherent.
26:45
Speaker 2: And from what Grandpa Joe understood, if you're a zombie,
26:48
Speaker 2: you can't speak words, you can't communicate. So but he's,
26:53
Speaker 2: you know, so coherent, all right, cool cool. Mike tells
26:56
Speaker 2: them he has hot dogs come in. During this time,
27:01
Speaker 2: Grandpa Joe's kind of looking around, still suspicious because Mike
27:05
Speaker 2: has sons, and where are they usually there with him
27:07
Speaker 2: helping him, and he doesn't see them, and he asks,
27:09
Speaker 2: where's your sons? Mike doesn't answer, He just says, come
27:13
Speaker 2: and get get hot dogs, and he's like, no, but
27:15
Speaker 2: where's his son. He's like, eh, they're around, come get
27:17
Speaker 2: hot dogs, very jovially. I guess. As they walk in,
27:22
Speaker 2: they see the TV is on with Archie Bunker shows taped,
27:26
Speaker 2: and then Mike is having a good old time watching
27:29
Speaker 2: this show. They look for supplies, but soon again Mike
27:32
Speaker 2: is carrying on laughing about hot dogs. Again, something is
27:36
Speaker 2: still odd, but it's too late. At this point, Mike
27:40
Speaker 2: attacks Grandpa Joe, biting him and during this time they
27:45
Speaker 2: have a whole like scuffle and Kendrick shoots Mike and
27:49
Speaker 2: he's able to stop him. However, Grandpa Joe has been
27:53
Speaker 2: bitten during this time. Grandpa John knows it's too late,
27:57
Speaker 2: but they needed to get out for Kendrick's sake because
27:59
Speaker 2: his Mike's son's around here somewhere. So they rushed quickly
28:03
Speaker 2: to get into the car and start driving slowly. Grandball
28:07
Speaker 2: Joe knows he's turning, and when he asked Kendrick what
28:09
Speaker 2: happened to his parents, he said they got sleepy. They
28:12
Speaker 2: got sleepy, and they didn't know what was going on.
28:15
Speaker 2: They didn't know what was going on, but they just
28:16
Speaker 2: kept saying they were tired, and he was like, okay,
28:19
Speaker 2: he felt that he felt the numbness of his leg
28:21
Speaker 2: who's bitten, and he was getting sleepy as well. In
28:24
Speaker 2: his mind, he's cursing himself and trying to think about
28:26
Speaker 2: the fact that that Mike spoke to him. And then
28:29
Speaker 2: he realized when he had arrived at Kendrick's home to
28:33
Speaker 2: get him, he thought he had imagined his daughter saying daddy,
28:37
Speaker 2: which is something he hadn't heard until she called him
28:41
Speaker 2: to come get Kendrick, and realizing that he did say that,
28:44
Speaker 2: so she was talking to him when he shot her
28:48
Speaker 2: and Kendrick's dad. So during this time, he's realizing, Okay,
28:54
Speaker 2: they are essentially evolving, is what he is figuring out,
28:57
Speaker 2: Like they are aware and all these things. He tells
29:01
Speaker 2: Kendrick that they can't drive for long. When they stop,
29:04
Speaker 2: he needs to run, go towards rescue centers, which is
29:07
Speaker 2: what they heard on the radio when they were driving,
29:10
Speaker 2: and to keep going and no matter what if he
29:12
Speaker 2: heard something approaching, yell and shoot, and that's essentially what
29:16
Speaker 2: he says. So Kendrick is trying to do all these things,
29:19
Speaker 2: saying grandpa or grandpa know, But then he gets it together,
29:22
Speaker 2: gets his coat, gets his gun, and runs as Grandpa
29:24
Speaker 2: tells him to go. Grandpa is trying to turn the
29:26
Speaker 2: gun on himself, but he's slowly turning too much, and
29:29
Speaker 2: in his mind we can see and we can read
29:32
Speaker 2: what's set of going through his mind, which is like
29:34
Speaker 2: he wants to be alive, this new zombie speaking in
29:39
Speaker 2: his mind essentially and talking about how he needs to
29:42
Speaker 2: go get Kendrick. He needs to go get Kendrick. And
29:46
Speaker 2: we see Kendrick hiding in the forest because he's too
29:48
Speaker 2: tired to run and it's getting dark. So Kendrick sits
29:52
Speaker 2: with his gun. He hears something approaching, and he hears
29:55
Speaker 2: his grandpa saying the danger word. Breakfast yep.
30:02
Speaker 1: End yep.
30:07
Speaker 2: This was the story thatdu wrote with her husband, Stephen Barnes.
30:12
Speaker 2: She writes after years of collaborating on film and TV
30:15
Speaker 2: pitches and projects, Danger Word was my first prose collaboration
30:19
Speaker 2: with my husband's science fiction writer, Stephen Barnes, and it's
30:22
Speaker 2: kind of the beginning of a few of their projects together.
30:29
Speaker 2: Messing with me with these kids.
30:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she's so great at the open ending.
30:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, everything is that like you don't quite know.
30:42
Speaker 1: It leaves your imagination is where the worst things are
30:45
Speaker 1: going to happen. And she knows that.
30:50
Speaker 2: I can't remember did this one happen? Did this one's
30:52
Speaker 2: stray zombies? The other ones that were about to hit
30:54
Speaker 2: has like a disease that just wipes people out, but
30:58
Speaker 2: this one had. This was the only one that I
31:01
Speaker 2: think I read with zombies.
31:03
Speaker 1: Yes, I believe so, But I loved it. And it's
31:07
Speaker 1: funny because at the end, her husband has kind of
31:11
Speaker 1: an afterward and he talks about difficulty of like being
31:17
Speaker 1: with someone and writing with them and working with them
31:19
Speaker 1: and how they worked it out through this, and so
31:21
Speaker 1: it's interesting to read it knowing kind of right that
31:25
Speaker 1: this was their first time doing it, but I mean,
31:29
Speaker 1: it was so creepy. And then when Kendrick finds out
31:34
Speaker 1: the truth about about how his grandpa shot his parents
31:39
Speaker 1: because he didn't know that at first, right, No, that
31:41
Speaker 1: was a really emot.
31:44
Speaker 2: Yeah conversation that they were still there. Yeah, but they
31:49
Speaker 2: might be still there, Like it was an odd like
31:51
Speaker 2: it was weird as Grandpa was like Grandpa Jay was
31:54
Speaker 2: so serious and like down to earth. You need to
31:56
Speaker 2: grow up, you need to do these things, you need
31:58
Speaker 2: to do these things. But he still was trying to
32:00
Speaker 2: protect him as a child, like giving him, like promising
32:03
Speaker 2: him a coke, which he shouldn't have tried, Like he
32:05
Speaker 2: should have immediately realized something was wrong, but like all
32:08
Speaker 2: these things because he needed to fulfill something that would
32:11
Speaker 2: make Kendrick happy. There are so many things so that,
32:16
Speaker 2: and had Kendrick stayed with the dog woman, maybe he
32:20
Speaker 2: would have maybe he would have figured out quicker, but
32:22
Speaker 2: like he was so like focused on both the child
32:25
Speaker 2: and this, or maybe he wouldn't have and he would
32:27
Speaker 2: have just died there and Kendrick wouldn't have never known
32:29
Speaker 2: what happened, but he would have been safe.
32:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, we're jumping into the second apocalyptic one or
32:53
Speaker 1: the third one, I guess really, and it's removal, order.
32:58
Speaker 2: This this and got my gut to gome. Do we
33:02
Speaker 2: need words? You're making me angry now that I'm thinking
33:04
Speaker 2: about it. As good as these stories are. So we
33:07
Speaker 2: have the seventy two. Our flu has brought havoc among
33:11
Speaker 2: the population, and we meet Naima Nama, who is currently
33:15
Speaker 2: taking care of her cancer ridden grandmother, who essentially is
33:18
Speaker 2: just living on pay meds. She decides to move her
33:23
Speaker 2: and her grandmother to her neighbor's house, who has already
33:26
Speaker 2: fled to go to the high desert away from the
33:28
Speaker 2: fires close by, which was caused by people in order
33:32
Speaker 2: to eradicate the seventy too our flu. Her grandmother's home
33:37
Speaker 2: is covered in fleas due to all the animals in
33:39
Speaker 2: the house, including two of her grandma's beloved cat and
33:43
Speaker 2: Tango being the one that she loved the most. But
33:46
Speaker 2: they she like let them out because she was like,
33:48
Speaker 2: we can't feed you and you don't want to be
33:49
Speaker 2: in here anyway, but the house is covered in fleas,
33:52
Speaker 2: and because there's no way to get him out, name
33:55
Speaker 2: is like, we're gonna move. So after a painful move
33:59
Speaker 2: like that whole h envisioning that move because our grandmother
34:03
Speaker 2: has in so much pain from bed sores, from cancer
34:07
Speaker 2: for all the things. And as as she is moving
34:12
Speaker 2: to the other area, the cop arrives and letting her
34:17
Speaker 2: know that she would have to leave in forty eight hours.
34:19
Speaker 2: So everybody's being told leave because they're essentially gonna sends
34:23
Speaker 2: a place on fire. Yeah, and it didn't matter who
34:26
Speaker 2: was there, They're gonna you're gonna get caught in that fire.
34:29
Speaker 2: As he advised her to go no matter what. He
34:32
Speaker 2: leaves some frozen chicken with her that they had found,
34:34
Speaker 2: letting her know again that she has to leave. But
34:38
Speaker 2: you know, here's this. You can cook this for today
34:40
Speaker 2: and cook me some too, essentially like while you're here.
34:45
Speaker 2: It's the first time she had meat in quite some
34:48
Speaker 2: time or anything like that, because I think she's been
34:49
Speaker 2: living off of like insure and whatever food she could find.
34:56
Speaker 2: She says he'll be back the following day to eat some,
34:59
Speaker 2: and she gets it ready for him, like the whole
35:01
Speaker 2: like food scenes like this during this time, get me.
35:04
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm gonna need I'm gonna need chicken now.
35:08
Speaker 2: The next day he comes back and after she's already
35:10
Speaker 2: eating some, but like she shares it with him, and
35:12
Speaker 2: they're eating and he's talking to her. He talks about
35:15
Speaker 2: she needs to go. He say. He seems stand offish
35:20
Speaker 2: but nice, so she's kind of dealing with it. Soon
35:23
Speaker 2: he's like, I need to go inside, and she's like, okay,
35:25
Speaker 2: go in there, And the next thing she hears is
35:27
Speaker 2: a gunshot and he comes back out and she figures
35:32
Speaker 2: out what's happening and she and then as he leaves,
35:36
Speaker 2: he tells her to go to Santa Cruz, which is
35:38
Speaker 2: where his family is, gives her like card information and
35:41
Speaker 2: just walks away and tells her to leave and tells
35:44
Speaker 2: her to not take anything, just take what's in the
35:46
Speaker 2: car and go. Grieving and in pain, not looking at
35:49
Speaker 2: her grandmother but covering her up. An Naema loads the car,
35:54
Speaker 2: Tango comes out of nowhere. She puts Tango in the car,
35:57
Speaker 2: and then Tango's like, no, let me out. She's like okay,
36:00
Speaker 2: So like that happens, and she sets off with her supplies.
36:07
Speaker 2: I honestly I will say this, and just to add this,
36:13
Speaker 2: like this weekend we had an issue with my neighbor's
36:17
Speaker 2: dog and like talking about him suffering and all these things.
36:20
Speaker 2: So this one felt like, I know, humans and dogs different,
36:23
Speaker 2: but still like just having kind of some experience of
36:25
Speaker 2: like loss and grief and doing what's best. That was painful,
36:31
Speaker 2: Like I was like, oh, the suffering, But at the
36:34
Speaker 2: same time, that's so it feels inhumane as well. During
36:36
Speaker 2: apocalypse and then going back to the back and forth
36:38
Speaker 2: and band like but what do you do in this situation? Yeah,
36:44
Speaker 2: and like it feels so cold and cruel, but at
36:46
Speaker 2: the same time, like wood name had stayed and been
36:49
Speaker 2: set on fire, but to sacrifice to be with her grandma.
36:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a that's a tough like because
37:02
Speaker 1: you want to be so angry at the cop because
37:04
Speaker 1: he took the choice from her right, but at the
37:07
Speaker 1: same time he kind of spared her from having to
37:10
Speaker 1: make the choice. It's complicated. Yeah, well, okay, do said
37:19
Speaker 1: about this. The caretaking imagery in the story comes from
37:23
Speaker 1: the experience of watching my late mother, Patricia Stevens do
37:27
Speaker 1: stefphat the effects of bed source late in her life.
37:29
Speaker 1: The horror of losing a loved one feels as terrible
37:32
Speaker 1: as watching the world fall apart, which we've talked about
37:36
Speaker 1: a lot. Is a big part of horror.
37:42
Speaker 2: And it makes you want to cry.
37:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Well, the interesting thing about this one was,
37:52
Speaker 1: you know, you hear about the seventy two hour flu.
37:54
Speaker 1: You don't know too much about it, but you know
37:57
Speaker 1: it's bad because they are setting whole things. The whole
38:01
Speaker 1: place is on fire, and I didn't know it was
38:06
Speaker 1: going to continue into multiple stories.
38:10
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I don't think we know about that until
38:15
Speaker 2: the end the last one and they're like, oh, She's like,
38:20
Speaker 2: this is a trilogy. I was like, oh, yeah, okay,
38:23
Speaker 2: it's good to know because we do find because I
38:25
Speaker 2: was like, does she keep using the same name just.
38:27
Speaker 1: Because yeah, I was confused at first, Teo, but I
38:30
Speaker 1: was like, no, this seems the same.
38:33
Speaker 2: Well there's some like Nima was previously, and I was
38:35
Speaker 2: like that sounds familiar. And the way that Graceland and
38:37
Speaker 2: the like mccormicks keep coming into.
38:39
Speaker 1: Play, it like that right.
38:41
Speaker 2: No. So, speaking of which, yes, we're jumping into the
38:44
Speaker 2: part two with Naima and it's called herd Immunity. So
38:49
Speaker 2: Naama's back once again, but this time she is traveling.
38:52
Speaker 2: I think she's been in California, but she is traveling
38:54
Speaker 2: again in California on foot. We don't know what has happened.
38:57
Speaker 2: She's got some uh, primate feed is what it's called.
39:02
Speaker 2: So I'm assuming like animal food, like pet food. I
39:06
Speaker 2: don't know. Maybe I don't know if there was like
39:08
Speaker 2: testing on monkeys, that might be an implication, which is
39:10
Speaker 2: really sad and gross, but you know that happens, so
39:14
Speaker 2: we don't know. But she found that and that's what
39:16
Speaker 2: she's using eating to survive. And she's had a little
39:18
Speaker 2: bit of water, but there she's gonna need to find things.
39:21
Speaker 2: So she is traveling through she spots a man ahead
39:23
Speaker 2: of her with a guitar and decides to follow him
39:26
Speaker 2: because she's like the first person she's seen he's here, Like, again,
39:30
Speaker 2: this one doesn't really have zombies. I thought maybe they
39:32
Speaker 2: had zombies. Yeah, but I don't like because I thought
39:35
Speaker 2: maybe he was one. No, but we have looters and
39:39
Speaker 2: of course all of that. But she is prepped with
39:41
Speaker 2: her gun. But she sees him and she tries to
39:45
Speaker 2: talk to him, but she slowly starts following him. She's like,
39:47
Speaker 2: he seems like good stock, and she's imagining herself with him,
39:50
Speaker 2: Like there's this level of like desperation and saving the
39:54
Speaker 2: world like through her and this man. And she's like,
39:57
Speaker 2: he plays guitar good enough. So after following him around,
40:05
Speaker 2: finding his trail of candy wrappers he leaves behind twizzlers,
40:10
Speaker 2: finds out that he's a Red Vines dude, which is
40:13
Speaker 2: dumb Twizzlers all the way. Yes, I'm just kidding. They
40:17
Speaker 2: soon meet up at the County Line Road Fair or
40:20
Speaker 2: Rescue Center as it's turned into, and she yells out
40:23
Speaker 2: to him, She's like, hey, what's up all these things?
40:26
Speaker 2: And they start having conversations, and there they talk and
40:29
Speaker 2: she tries to convince him they are immune, and he
40:32
Speaker 2: has his mask on and like all this protection on,
40:34
Speaker 2: and she's like, dude, you're not alive because you're so
40:37
Speaker 2: good at protecting yourself. We are immune. And she's trying
40:41
Speaker 2: to talk to them and being like, hey, we need
40:43
Speaker 2: to stick together. We're alive, we're immune. We can help population,
40:48
Speaker 2: you know, we need to help each other. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
40:50
Speaker 2: you stay there. You can stay there for the night,
40:54
Speaker 2: but we're not together. I'm here for a reason. I
40:56
Speaker 2: got my gun. You stay over there. You could take
40:58
Speaker 2: whatever you want, just leave my guitar, like all these
41:01
Speaker 2: things in order to be like you say, are there.
41:03
Speaker 2: So they argue back and forth. Then he was like
41:05
Speaker 2: are you Murray Curry, like who are you? Like all
41:09
Speaker 2: these things? How do you know for sure? How have
41:11
Speaker 2: you tested it? Do you have a theory? All these things?
41:13
Speaker 2: And she's like, no, come on, man, you're alive. He's like,
41:16
Speaker 2: you're alive. It's almost been a here. It's like, is
41:17
Speaker 2: that long enough? And she's like, well, it's wiped out
41:19
Speaker 2: with a lot of people, so it seems like it.
41:23
Speaker 2: They argue and the man is saying he has to
41:26
Speaker 2: completely believe her and just tells her to stay your distance.
41:30
Speaker 2: She goes on to discover what's around them and look
41:33
Speaker 2: at the rescue center, finding anything she could, including finding
41:36
Speaker 2: a running car with a full take of gas. She
41:40
Speaker 2: finds food and water and stocks up her Petee Cruiser,
41:43
Speaker 2: her purple Petea Cruiser.
41:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
41:46
Speaker 2: She also finds the center where dark liquid still remains,
41:51
Speaker 2: wondering what it is, but then she sees rows of
41:53
Speaker 2: shoes from families neatly placed, and then finds the closed
41:58
Speaker 2: barn with the smell of death. That's how she puts it,
42:02
Speaker 2: and there she's like, you know, I'm gonna take these shoes,
42:05
Speaker 2: thank you for that, Like trying to pay homage, but
42:07
Speaker 2: also understanding the darkness here. She returns talking to the man,
42:13
Speaker 2: who finally introduces himself as Kyle, still persisting she stays away,
42:18
Speaker 2: but they could hang out from afar and she can
42:20
Speaker 2: move on. The next day, when he falls asleep, she
42:24
Speaker 2: sneaks over, stares at him, and kisses him because I
42:27
Speaker 2: was like, what the hell girl? No. The next day,
42:33
Speaker 2: Kyle is sick and vomiting as she realizes what has happened.
42:39
Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
42:41
Speaker 2: Of course he can't hear her because he's in so
42:43
Speaker 2: much pain and sickness. Naama apologizes, gets in the car
42:47
Speaker 2: and leaves. YEP. I was like, oh no, due wrote
42:55
Speaker 2: I decided to imagine what the end of the world
42:56
Speaker 2: would feel like to one character. My answer isolation, So
43:01
Speaker 2: like Nayma's desperation and trying to find someone really thinking
43:05
Speaker 2: she has understood this disease and really understood it, and
43:09
Speaker 2: it truly was. This man was careful and yeah, one
43:12
Speaker 2: fell swoop. She killed him.
43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he was like he had gloves, he had
43:18
Speaker 1: like he was saying, no, I literally have not come
43:22
Speaker 1: in contact with anything.
43:24
Speaker 2: He's like, not even glass.
43:25
Speaker 1: Nope. Yeah, but she did not buy it and kissed
43:31
Speaker 1: him arrogance and yes forcibly kissing him because she wanted
43:35
Speaker 1: to prove to him you're immune. She was like, I'm
43:38
Speaker 1: going to tell him I kissed you and you're fine.
43:42
Speaker 2: And her desperation, Yeah, and this like her desperation to
43:45
Speaker 2: find someone else, to find some companionship, to be like
43:49
Speaker 2: away from this isolation and find someone who could help
43:55
Speaker 2: start the world anew Essentially that she really thought this
43:59
Speaker 2: would be the solve and it wasn't. No, that was
44:06
Speaker 2: arow while it was at all like, well, the head
44:10
Speaker 2: end of the story is awful.
44:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she kept I mean, ultimately she was right,
44:15
Speaker 1: but she kept trying to like yell at him as
44:18
Speaker 1: she was falling behind him, like that's not a rescue center,
44:21
Speaker 1: Like they don't do that there.
44:22
Speaker 2: Right, that doesn't work.
44:24
Speaker 1: But he just wanted to go because he had these
44:25
Speaker 1: memories and he was he was kind of in the
44:29
Speaker 1: like this might be the last. Let me have these
44:32
Speaker 1: good memories.
44:35
Speaker 2: And if all those supplies are there, it would it'd
44:37
Speaker 2: have been a good place for him to hold up.
44:39
Speaker 1: That was a rough one. I feel like everyone we're like,
44:42
Speaker 1: oh that one, Oh why why? Oh?
44:46
Speaker 2: So we're moving on to the third one, which is
44:49
Speaker 2: Carriers And yeah, the story again is with Naima, but
44:53
Speaker 2: it takes place in twenty fifty five. At this point,
44:57
Speaker 2: Nayama is Jaden and has been through some things. She
45:00
Speaker 2: was isolating herself to what she called Naima land, which
45:04
Speaker 2: is like hundreds of acres of dead farmland that she
45:07
Speaker 2: was like, I'll take it here, stay away from me,
45:09
Speaker 2: to all humanity, and she lived there with her two
45:12
Speaker 2: pet cats, one of them being named Tango, and her
45:15
Speaker 2: chickens where she got her eggs, and like some of
45:19
Speaker 2: her freshed chicken except the giant cats, feral cats came
45:23
Speaker 2: to kill one of her priz Sunday chickens, damn Cat.
45:29
Speaker 2: She had been there for some time after being released
45:31
Speaker 2: from captivity by the government who had been experimenting with
45:35
Speaker 2: on her and other carriers as they were called, or
45:38
Speaker 2: those who survived with no symptoms, like they obviously carried
45:42
Speaker 2: the disease but had no symptoms and are healthy. They
45:47
Speaker 2: were used for treatment and vaccines from their antibodies and
45:50
Speaker 2: their bloods. They were tortured essentially, and after a release
45:55
Speaker 2: they were allotted land as repayment, and some of those
45:58
Speaker 2: carriers actually created community together. It was she was saying
46:01
Speaker 2: that she and we're about to talk about Raoul were
46:04
Speaker 2: the youngest in these encampments, and so they knew they
46:08
Speaker 2: kind of like grew up together essentially. But Naima did
46:11
Speaker 2: not go to be a part of these communities. She
46:14
Speaker 2: just wanted to speaks far away from everyone. Her one
46:18
Speaker 2: of friend and that in quotes, this is Raoul who
46:21
Speaker 2: was a bit younger than her. She came. He came
46:24
Speaker 2: to give her her share of supplies and water the
46:27
Speaker 2: credits that she earned, and it was then that Raoul
46:32
Speaker 2: told her that they had a child. That she had
46:35
Speaker 2: a child, and with him, she and Raoul were forced
46:38
Speaker 2: to reproduce through most though most of the specimens did
46:41
Speaker 2: not survive. He told her that there had been one
46:45
Speaker 2: that survived, and it was a young girl, not even
46:47
Speaker 2: with a name. She had just given a number and
46:49
Speaker 2: she'd been raised there uh and the marshals as they
46:54
Speaker 2: were called had made an agreement with him that if
46:57
Speaker 2: he and nam Naima could take this child and she
47:00
Speaker 2: could live with them if they agreed to terms, and
47:05
Speaker 2: we don't know quite what those terms are, but they
47:08
Speaker 2: just had to agree together and consent. But Naima didn't
47:12
Speaker 2: believe him and thought this was only a trick by
47:14
Speaker 2: the government because she's been tricks several times and they've
47:16
Speaker 2: come to her hand and taken her and robbed her
47:18
Speaker 2: essentially a lot. And she told him if he came
47:21
Speaker 2: with the marshals that she would shoot them rightly. So
47:24
Speaker 2: later that day, Naima was forced to go to the
47:27
Speaker 2: schools to talk about her experience, and there the reality
47:31
Speaker 2: kind of hit home that she may have a child
47:33
Speaker 2: that's aged or that's around the same age as some
47:36
Speaker 2: of these children, and it kind of overwhelmed her. But
47:40
Speaker 2: with this thought, she waited up all night for what
47:43
Speaker 2: she assumed was a trap by the marshals. But the
47:46
Speaker 2: following day she was visited by Raoul and two smiling
47:51
Speaker 2: unprotected they didn't wear any protection marshals, and with them
47:58
Speaker 2: four year old young brunette girl came up on the
48:01
Speaker 2: porch and to her surprise, the little girl had Graham's
48:04
Speaker 2: nose and plump, cheerful cheeks, and she knew and she
48:09
Speaker 2: opened the door.
48:11
Speaker 1: Yop, it felt like.
48:14
Speaker 2: A happy ending.
48:16
Speaker 1: Kind of okay, yeah, her and so this is the
48:22
Speaker 1: end of the trilogy, and it's sort of like it
48:24
Speaker 1: began with her grandmother dying and ends with this young
48:29
Speaker 1: girl who has some of her grandmother's features. Again, no,
48:36
Speaker 1: she leaves so much open to the imagination. Hopefully it
48:39
Speaker 1: was only it was a happy ending. Here's what Tu
48:43
Speaker 1: said about it about this trilogy in particular, each story
48:47
Speaker 1: in its own way is about seeking or trying to
48:49
Speaker 1: hold onto family. Naima has resigned herself to be without
48:52
Speaker 1: human contact or human experience as a mother. After all
48:56
Speaker 1: she had been through. I wanted her to experience the
48:58
Speaker 1: kind of change we see unfolding daily, even in the
49:01
Speaker 1: face of fear and pain that has lasted for generations. Yeah. Yeah,
49:11
Speaker 1: because it's so fascinating to see this play out as
49:14
Speaker 1: the trilogy of like where it goes h because it
49:18
Speaker 1: changes so drastically. She changes so drastically. Oh oh my goodness.
49:24
Speaker 1: And that part where she was talking to the kids,
49:25
Speaker 1: and you know, she has like these rules where she
49:28
Speaker 1: can't say like negative things about.
49:31
Speaker 2: She can't say why she lost her teeth, which she
49:33
Speaker 2: had been beaten and raped. My marshall, she pushed back. Yeah,
49:41
Speaker 2: but that's how she earns her credits, to be an
49:43
Speaker 2: experiment and on display.
49:45
Speaker 1: Yep, and to talk about it.
49:57
Speaker 2: And we go come upon a few more. It's kind
50:01
Speaker 2: of a standalone as well, so but it's a little
50:03
Speaker 2: more themed. And this the next one is Signora Suerte
50:07
Speaker 2: and we meet Giebreto, who is a resident of a
50:10
Speaker 2: nursing home. After he suffered a few strokes here, he
50:14
Speaker 2: watched the people around him and he hated this place.
50:16
Speaker 2: This place is awful. One thing he did enjoy was
50:20
Speaker 2: going to bingo, but not necessarily to play or to
50:23
Speaker 2: even watch the bingo happen, but to watch for a
50:27
Speaker 2: certain someone. So there he spots his angel, who he
50:31
Speaker 2: says he can see beyond human form. One he can
50:34
Speaker 2: he can only see one that is disguise as a
50:37
Speaker 2: nurse named Rosaria. He witnesses her touching a fellow resident, Pedro,
50:43
Speaker 2: seemingly healing his cough who's been coughing throughout and having
50:46
Speaker 2: hard time breathing, and giving him luck to win some
50:49
Speaker 2: bingo games. And that night, Pedro dies peacefully in his sleep.
50:55
Speaker 2: So we just know that this and to him, this
50:57
Speaker 2: is something he wants. He desperately wants this. He that
51:00
Speaker 2: definitely wants this luck because he is mala stde is
51:04
Speaker 2: what he says, well, bad luck. He is drenched in it.
51:08
Speaker 2: And that Rosario arrives again to another bingo game, and
51:12
Speaker 2: this time she chooses Stella, another resident, one who is
51:16
Speaker 2: hard of hearing, but one who ends up winning a
51:19
Speaker 2: couple of rounds of bingo as well, and she can
51:21
Speaker 2: hear better towards like so you can actually hear the
51:23
Speaker 2: numbers this time. That night, as Gabeto expected, Stella dies
51:28
Speaker 2: in her sleep. And no one really suspects anything because
51:31
Speaker 2: she was older, so they're like, yeah, maybe. He goes
51:33
Speaker 2: back and forth of maybe, like thinking he like Rosaria
51:36
Speaker 2: is actually killing them, don't know or unplugging machines. Who knows.
51:41
Speaker 2: He doesn't see her at any point in time other
51:44
Speaker 2: than bingo Rosaria. At the end of the story, Gilberto
51:49
Speaker 2: has decided to participate in a round of bingo, and
51:51
Speaker 2: as Rosario walks in, he's silently begging as she is
51:55
Speaker 2: staring at him, bless me, save me, choose me. End
52:03
Speaker 2: the story, and and the do rights. This was the
52:08
Speaker 2: prompt for the story what if the unluckiest man met
52:12
Speaker 2: Lady Luck? And what does luck mean in a nursing home.
52:20
Speaker 1: That's a good prompt. That is a good problem.
52:24
Speaker 2: I'm gonna write a story about this after we're done.
52:27
Speaker 1: My fan fiction. Oh be so mad. They're so mad
52:29
Speaker 1: at me already, Like you're writing too much, update your
52:32
Speaker 1: other stories.
52:35
Speaker 2: Don't you love when people think they have ownership of
52:37
Speaker 2: something they just enjoy?
52:39
Speaker 1: All right?
52:40
Speaker 2: So the last story we have is Vanishing and we
52:43
Speaker 2: meet Nidra whose husband has vanished and even after almost
52:48
Speaker 2: a year, he is nowhere to be found. Everybody presumed
52:51
Speaker 2: him dead, except for Nidra. Nedra swears he ran away,
52:55
Speaker 2: ran away because their youngest daughter, Asia was sick. People
52:58
Speaker 2: stared and made fun of Asia, saying she looked like
53:00
Speaker 2: a ghost due to her illness. People have been trying
53:04
Speaker 2: to help, even a coworker of Carl's who is the husband,
53:08
Speaker 2: who is trying to make sure Nidra gets the insurance
53:10
Speaker 2: payout that Carl had bought. So with this, She's like, oh,
53:13
Speaker 2: you planned this, you know where he is? Where is he?
53:16
Speaker 2: And the little coworker's like, no, we just want you
53:19
Speaker 2: to be taken care of. She goes to visit. Niedra
53:24
Speaker 2: ghest to visit where Carl had disappeared, wondering what happened,
53:26
Speaker 2: And this is the one that happened in Atlanta off
53:29
Speaker 2: n so I was like, I wonder if I know
53:31
Speaker 2: where this is. A year later, again, this is the
53:34
Speaker 2: same year later, Nidra has started something with her oldest
53:38
Speaker 2: daughter's geometry teacher named Devin. The oldest Charlene does not
53:43
Speaker 2: like the situation, and there had been many fights between
53:46
Speaker 2: her her and Nidra, but including the fact that Nidra
53:50
Speaker 2: cannot admit that Carl might be dead, and carl is gone,
53:55
Speaker 2: but Charlene loves her sister and has been there to
53:58
Speaker 2: help take care of her age. We find Devon coming
54:02
Speaker 2: over this night to have mac and cheese with the family.
54:06
Speaker 2: Charlene seems to relent a little bit, although she makes
54:09
Speaker 2: sure she knows this is her territory and you're the
54:13
Speaker 2: she said, my nemesis. But he seems to be very
54:19
Speaker 2: kind and very open with the girls, and like ant
54:22
Speaker 2: Ninra and wanting to make sure that they're okay and safe.
54:26
Speaker 2: After dinner, Devin leaves, but Charlene helps Asia get a bath.
54:32
Speaker 2: She obviously really takes care of Asia like the second mother.
54:38
Speaker 2: As they get ready for bed, Ninitra notices how sick
54:40
Speaker 2: Asia looks.
54:42
Speaker 1: She writes.
54:43
Speaker 2: A splash echoed behind Nidra from the bathtub. SuDS parted
54:47
Speaker 2: at the foot of the pub as Asia sat up,
54:49
Speaker 2: a watery shadow against bathwater, the color of the ocean.
54:53
Speaker 2: The bubbles cling to Asia's hair and face framed her features.
54:57
Speaker 2: Nitra couldn't believe how pale Asia was since her life
55:00
Speaker 2: bath her bare skin was nearly invisible. So this is
55:04
Speaker 2: all in realization that she hadn't been aware of how
55:08
Speaker 2: sick Asia really was until she saw her in this
55:12
Speaker 2: form and talks about her slowly vanishing.
55:16
Speaker 1: Yes, yep, and this is the last one. Here's what
55:22
Speaker 1: du said about it. Throughout my writing career, I have
55:25
Speaker 1: sought ways to convey the feelings and images of death
55:27
Speaker 1: and dying as my own coping mechanism. This story, first
55:31
Speaker 1: written in the wake of my mother's death in twenty twelve,
55:33
Speaker 1: has never before been published. I am still trying to
55:36
Speaker 1: understand how our loved ones can simply disappear.
55:40
Speaker 2: This hits too hard because there are too many times
55:44
Speaker 2: because again when you especially maybe when you're not around
55:49
Speaker 2: them constantly, and so when they die, it might not
55:53
Speaker 2: feel real and you come back to see them in
55:56
Speaker 2: that same place that they're just not there, and that
55:59
Speaker 2: level of like trying to figure that out and what
56:03
Speaker 2: to do with that emptiness like they're just gone. Yeah.
56:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I you know, my dad was sick. I
56:15
Speaker 1: didn't see him all that often, and when I would,
56:18
Speaker 1: he like shrink, you know, like he was vanishing, like disappearing,
56:26
Speaker 1: And it is bizarre. It's hard to square with, well,
56:32
Speaker 1: where did they go?
56:33
Speaker 2: Yeah? And how do you deal with that? Yeah? How
56:37
Speaker 2: do you deal with that?
56:39
Speaker 1: Once again, grief, grief, and horror, Oh my goodness. And
56:44
Speaker 1: I would also say one of the main themes in
56:47
Speaker 1: a lot of these stories is parentification, and this story,
56:49
Speaker 1: I was thinking about that one a lot.
56:52
Speaker 2: Well. The fact that she, like Charlene, tells Nidra towards
56:57
Speaker 2: the beginning that she's the queen of denial.
57:00
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah ooff. Well, clearly there's so much to talk
57:09
Speaker 1: about with these and they were they were all really powerful. Obviously.
57:15
Speaker 2: When I say haunting like lingering, when I have stories
57:18
Speaker 2: that linger, Yeah, I can't read stories like this often
57:22
Speaker 2: because they linger into too long.
57:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, I'm going to be thinking out some of
57:27
Speaker 1: these for a long time.
57:29
Speaker 2: But obviously that's the mark of a good writer. And yeah,
57:32
Speaker 2: an amazing writer.
57:34
Speaker 1: Oh yes, And I, like I said in the part one,
57:38
Speaker 1: I love how she just showcased all those genres. All
57:44
Speaker 1: these genres hard can be, it can look all kinds
57:46
Speaker 1: of ways. Oh my gosh, I can't wait to read
57:49
Speaker 1: more from her. But yes, listeners, please let us know
57:53
Speaker 1: if you have any thoughts about any of these, any
57:56
Speaker 1: other recommendations for books or anything else. Yes, please let
58:01
Speaker 1: us know. You can email us at Hello at stuffwenevertold
58:04
Speaker 1: you dot com. You can find us on Blue Sky
58:06
Speaker 1: at mom Stuff Podcast. We're on Instagram and TikTok at
58:09
Speaker 1: stuff One Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We
58:12
Speaker 1: have a tea public story, and we have a book
58:13
Speaker 1: you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as
58:15
Speaker 1: always to our super producer Christine or executive producer and
58:17
Speaker 1: a contruter Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
58:21
Speaker 1: Stuff Will Never Told You is production of I Heart Radio.
58:22
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
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Speaker 1: out the heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or if you
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