Welcome back to Strange As Fiction, a column that features short fiction prose.  This is the second piece of a short horror story called “Like Father, Like Son”.  If you haven’t read the first section, click the link to start reading Part One for the whole story.  Enjoy!  

#

Wendy had been waiting half an hour outside the Health & Home grocery store, still wearing her red cashier’s apron, when her husband’s black Toyota rolled up to the curb.  Even before the car rolled to a stop, she noted the way Mike gripped the wheel.  Her own hand, clutching that week’s paycheck, trembled.  As if the the twisting in her gut weren’t enough, the baby started kicking again.

The car stopped, and Mike rolled down the passenger window.  “Get in.”  Wendy obeyed.

The ride back to their house was tense.  It was only once they were parked in their driveway that Mike turned to Wendy.  “How much this week?”

“450, after taxes.”

He grunted, switching off the ignition.  “You think they’d pay you more.  Monday, you go to your manager and get a raise.  You could stand to be more assertive.”

Wendy bit her lip.  “Actually, I…” She took a deep breath.  “I’m taking Monday off.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.”

“Why,” Mike asked, lightly drumming on the steering wheel, “would you do a stupid thing like that?” The wrinkles by his eyes deepened; Wendy counted to ten, imagining that Mike was doing the same.

“My manager… he said..”

Mike hadn’t counted to ten.  Before his wife had finished her sentence, he slammed his fist down on the car’s horn.  The resulting blare caused Wendy to jump in her seat.

“Goddamnit Wendy, didn’t you tell him we needed the money?  That we’re going to be parents in a few months?  Fuck, children cost money, did you happen to think of that when you decided to be a mommy?”

He reached out to Wendy, who couldn’t help but flinch before his hand landed on her swollen belly.

“Mike, he said I looked like crap.  That I needed a few days off to recover my health.  I am pregnant, after all,” she said.

“Well, he was right about one thing.  But Wendy, that’s what the weekend’s for.”

Wendy flinched again, this time because her husband had started drumming with his fingers again, this time over her red Health & Home apron.  The baby started to kick again, mirroring Mike’s tapping fingers.

“Have you heard of Patau syndrome?”

“No?  What is it?” Wendy asked, beginning to grow nauseated from the sensations both inside and outside her stomach.

“It’s a genetic disorder, like Down syndrome but worse.  Most children with it die in the womb, but in extremely rare cases… babies born with it can have cleft palates, malformed noses… some even have only one eye, like some sort of cyclops.”  Mike removed his hand from Wendy, and she could feel the baby stop moving.  “I looked at images online.  It’s so fucked up, Wendy.  Like something out of a nightmare.”

“Why are you telling me this?”  Wendy asked, trying not to frown.  Back when she first told Mike about the pregnancy, he had all but commanded her to abort it.  If this was one last attempt to convince her…

“Monday, since you’re taking the day off.  You’re going to the doctor to get some genetic tests done.”

“Insurance won’t cover it.  I thought we needed to save money?”

“We can scrounge for a while.  This is important,” Mike replied, unbuckling his seat belt.  “A baby with one eye.  Or nose, or ears on its goddamned chin!  Could you really love a baby like that?”

Wendy paused, and and rested her own, shaking hand on her stomach. Her husband looked at her expectantly, his sharp blue eyes daring her to say what he thought impossible.  Could she love a monster? his gaze asked.

He underestimated her.  “Yes,” she answered out loud.

Mike’s eyes narrowed, and her unborn child began to kick for the third time that day, as if it were sounding the drums of war from within her.

#

Madds Warren is a graduate student at the University of Iowa.  An avid writer since the seventh grade as well as a fan of Alice Cooper and Stephen King, she’s been excited to try her hand at horror ever since the idea for “Like Father, Like Son” popped into her head.  Madds can be reached through email at madwar_krui@yahoo.com for comments or critique, and more of her writing can be found on Wattpad under the pseudonym ‘clarissavandell’.  Stay tuned for more “Strange as Fiction” on KRUI.fm!

The post Strange As Fiction: “Like Father, Like Son” – Part Two appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Turns out that my sister had not played me songs from Deerhunter, but The Dear Hunter.  Easy mistake.  Still, after listening to Fading Frontiers, I can give it a thumbs up – not the sort of band I’d normally fall in love with, but they have this beachy, drifting style that reminds me of…. well, maybe a little background is called for.

Deerhunter formed up in 2001 in Atlanta, GA, headed by vocalist Bradford Cox and drummer/keyboardist Moses Archuleta.  Today, the band has released seven studio albums, the latest being Fading Frontier which was released the 16th of last month.  Words like “noise rock,” “shoegaze,” and “ambient punk” appear on the band’s Wikipedia page, but like so many indie rock bands today, the exact nature of the band’s sound is hard to put into words.  So like last month, I’ll break this album review down, track by track.

Track 01 – “All The Same”
An alright opener for the album, “All The Same” is the song that reminds me of… Tame Impala?  The Replacements?  Maybe even the Pixies?  I get this nagging feeling that there’s a specific song by a specific band this song reminds me of, but gosh-darn-it if I know what it is.  To be more specific, the vocals have the rhythmic quality of a playground chant, though that isn’t to say it’s boring.  Well, maybe slightly boring.  It doesn’t help that the vocals have the higher pitched, drifting timbre so popular in the mixed CDs that my boyfriend gives me.  See Frank Black of the Pixies, Radiohead, The Replacements, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips, Animal Collective, etc.  I’m not saying that completely ruins the song, because I do like it.  I did, however, have to listen to it several times before gaining an appreciation for it.  For certain types of songs, I guess it just sounds all the same to me.  (See what I did there?)

Track 02 – “Living My Life”
Super chill, this track reminds me of lying on the beach during late summer while the sun has started to sink into the horizon.  Yet listening to the lyrics (ok, I went to genius.com), the song is actually about living life despite the notion that the future is growing bleak.  The “amber waves of grain and turning gray again,” and apparently the “fading frontier,”  the album’s namesake, is a metaphor for the diminishing excitement in the future.  Uh… sure, I totally got that from the music video.  Groovy.

Track 03 – “Breaker”
Another chill song (I’m detecting a theme in this album) with thoughtful lyrics, “Breaker” is about being alive despite multiple chances at death.  “My enemies” are “trying to kill me,” possible drowning imagery, and “jack-knifed on the side-street crossing” leave little doubt for the interpretation of this song, but the end message is somewhat optimistic.  The last verse of the song tells how the vocalist is still alive – “and that’s something.” Unlike “Living My Life,” the influence for this song is traced to a particular incident: Deerhunter vocalist Cox was hit by a car, and suffered extremely painful injuries that required a neck brace.  Surprisingly, the song’s tone and beat are nevertheless enjoyable, in a nonchalant matter.

Track 04 – “Duplex Planet”
Undoubtedly the coolest track title on the album, “Duplex Planet” is, surprise-surprise, pretty chill.  Apparently “Duplex Planet” is the name of a ‘zine where the writer interviews elderly residents of various nursing homes.  And true to the theme of this album, this track has a mildly depressing message upon examining the lyrics.  The singer’s viewpoint is that of an elderly person removed from society (then possibly dying from old age) and slowly forgotten over time – “in your head, you won’t remember me” – “after the body’s gone, the scent remains.”  Like the previous track, despite the subject matter of the lyrics, the instrumentation is rather nice – especially the keyboard before the bridge.  It reminds me of a slightly slower CAKE song in that regard, only with more distant, dreamlike vocals.

Track 05 – “Take Care”
“Take Care” is slow, drifting, and okay.  One of my least favorites of the album, the song falls under the “I could listen to it while studying” category – the category of songs that aren’t bad or grating, but not interesting enough to distract from how boring your assigned material is.  I could imagine some drug-fueled montage in a movie being backed by this song, especially with Cox’s vocals, but that’s all I can really say about it.

Track 06 – “Leather and Wood”
Worst track on the album.  The track is super slow, but unlike “Take Care,” has a disjointed feel between Cox’s vocals and the plodding keyboard that doesn’t settle with me.  There are moments where it feels like Cox is whispering into a bad microphone with a bad Michael Jackson impression.  And that’s not MJ singing “Billie Jean,” but MJ ordering hot and sour soup over a bad connection for his sore throat, slightly high from too much Nyquil.  And the song’s nearly six minutes.

Track 07 – “Snakeskin”
From the first few notes of the song, I get hyped.  After “Leather and Wood,” this track is pure awesome, upbeat, music you can bob your head to.  With a good beat and jangly guitar, “Snakeskin” is probably the only song that I’d buy the album for.  The music video‘s a little strange, featuring Cox wearing just overalls and a hat, playing with a skull, etc, but it works.  Definitely take a listen to this song, because it’s awesome.

Track 08 – “Ad Astra”
This track returns to the same drifting, slow tempo that dominates the album, but has a bass line I can appreciate.  “Ad Astra” is Latin for “to the stars,” and there is a definite space-vibe to this track with synth instrumentation, eerie sound effects, Cox’s distant vocals, and a last, grand rendition of the chorus.  Towards the end of the track, however, this mood changes with a sampling of folksy 1928 “I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground.”  This serves as a mild transition to the final track of the album.

Track 09 – “Carrion”
“Carrion” is a play on words – the song’s lyrics are how the narrator will “carry on” without someone that they’ve lost, but as the song continues, the singer devolves.  Soon the lyrics are about how they will “dig a hole, I will become a mole,” in reference to the sample on the previous track.  Perhaps the most telling lyric in the song is the lamenting “What’s wrong with me?” that echoes throughout the song.  Even though the narrator will “carry on,” the loss of their friend has caused them to become despairing – hence the title of the track “Carrion” and its negative connotations.  A depressing way to end an album, if you ask me.

Fading Frontier is by all means, an okay album, and even though I’m not enthusiastic about Deerhunter, I like these songs.  However, I like them individually.  After listening to three of their slower songs, the drifting vocals become droning, and I feel like taking a nap.  The exception?  “Snakeskin” is a breath of fresh air, and I would say that it’s the only song off the album I would actively find on my iPod to listen to.  The rest would be okay on a mixed CD with upbeat songs, but not all strung together in one album – it’s simply too much for me.

Grade: C-

Feel free to listen to the album and see if you agree with me.

The post Album Review: “Fading Frontier” by Deerhunter appeared first on KRUI Radio.

By the time Mike pulled the car out of the driveway, it had been two hours since his son was born. After obeying all roadside laws and etiquette on the drive to the hospital, Mike sauntered through the doorway to find an unpleasant sight – his wife. She was not the red, sweaty-faced new mother often seen on television shows. But her skin was doughy and pock-marked, pimples dotted her chin, and her greasy, dull hair hung limp over the shoulders of the standard hospital gown she wore. She had gained something like twenty-five pounds in their five years of marriage, Mike reflected. Five years, and it had come to this?

Most offensive, however, was the way Wendy goggled and cooed over the bundle of white cloth on her lap. Their son, Mike figured. But no, that was a lie. If anything, that expression on her face made him all the more certain of what he had suspected since he learned about the pregnancy. He wasn’t the father. No matter what Wendy claimed, she would never love a son of his like that.

He cleared his throat, alerting the new mother that her husband had arrived. She turned a cool gaze to him. “How was work? Darling.”

“How was childbirth?” he replied, placing one hand on the door frame. “…dear.” For the first time, Mike looked at the white bundle that sat in his wife’s arms.  She held it closer to her chest, maintaining her level expression towards him.  Why would a mother want to protect her son from his own father? Mike asked himself, and an answer came to his mind quickly. “Let me see him.”

“The doctor said-”

Ignoring her words, Mike walked up to the hidden newborn and threw the white cloth away from its face. He was prepared for a black baby, yellow, brown, redhead, anything that proved the child was not his.

He was not prepared for the actuality.

He recoiled at once, shrieking, and turned away. But it was too late, and the image was already carved into his brain. The infant’s face was like rubber, too large for its skull, with lips and gums like bloody pieces of meat. But none of that was the worst.

“Whore,” Mike said, too shaken to hide his vitriol. “You… slut.”

“Mike.”

“Who’s the goddamn father, Wendy? You’re lucky I… I… you cheating slut, I sit through nine months of you looking like a blimp, for this hellspawn?”

Wendy was silent, waiting for him to finish. Finally, she responded. “Turn around, Mike.” He steeled himself, then turned around to see his wife, holding the monstrous child out to him. Its one, swollen eye gazed back at him, pale blue and watery.  Yellow crud leaked out the corners, collecting in cesspools of gunk and snot under its nostrils. The eye gave a slow blink, and Mike fought the urge to gag. It couldn’t be a human child… could it?

“It’s a genetic condition,” Wendy said, bringing the infant back to her chest. She looked at the child again, running one hand over what little hair it had. “Like Down syndrome, but much rarer. The doctor said it was a miracle I didn’t miscarry.”

Mike wished he had pushed his wife down the stairs when he had had the chance.

As if she knew what her husband was thinking, she glanced up at him again with a serene smile. A vindictive smile, Mike thought. “You’ll learn to love him,” she said.

Liar, he wanted to call her.

She turned back to their son, watching as it gave a tiny yawn. “Look Daddy, he has your eye.”

#

Mike woke up, and realized that it was a nightmare. Wendy was only six months pregnant. He groaned,thinking about the terrible, disgusting thing in his dream. “Wendy… That whore,” he muttered. It was just a nightmare… but too vivid. He wiped the yellow sleep-gunk from his eyes before getting out of bed, attempting to forget the one-eyed, hellish infant that was supposedly his son. But deep down, he knew the nightmare would haunt him for the rest of the day. Maybe longer.

#

Madds Warren is a graduate student at the University of Iowa.  Although she studies biology, creative writing is her favorite hobby, writing mainly fiction genres such horror, sci-fi, or fantasy.  If you enjoyed the first chapter of “Like Father, Like Son”, or would like to share your thoughts, Madds can be reached through email at madwar_krui@yahoo.com.  Stay tuned for more “Strange as Fiction” on KRUI.fm, and happy Halloween!

The post Strange as Fiction: “Like Father, Like Son” – Part 1 appeared first on KRUI Radio.