22 Comments
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Anonymom's avatar

Phew....

Confusing but so intense....

Need to read again.

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M. Louisa Locke's avatar

I keep being amazed by your stories. Thanks for sharing so many of the one's I had missed.

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Meg Oolders's avatar

Thank YOU!

This might be one of my favorites from the early days. 💜💜

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Good Humor by CK Steefel's avatar

So relieved by the ending. 🥰🌺👏 Love your twists.

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Meg Oolders's avatar

🥰

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Kimberly Warner's avatar

Oh Meg, this was so so so good! Loved the ending. Leaning into our humanness is the best.

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Meg Oolders's avatar

Thank you, Kimberly. So happy this one provided good company for you on your flight to New England. 🥰🥰 Visit again soon!

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Ginger Stockwell's avatar

Fabulous. Strange. Mesmerizing. Loved it!

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Meg Oolders's avatar

Thank you so much, Ginger! 🥂💜

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Gosh, I love this story -- everything about it. It's an idea that is so new, and so clever, Meg. I felt suddenly very educated when I knew what Cygnus Olor meant, and realized they were not "going" somewhere else, but were "becoming" something else. My tattoo would say, "corvus frugilegus". How about yours?

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Meg Oolders's avatar

My first impulse is to say "chelonoidis niger" but that rules out flying. So, my second choice would be "falco peregrinus." 🐢🦅

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Or a hybrid chelonoidis niger volans! Now that would be magical. I do not see you as a raptor...

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Meg Oolders's avatar

It's only cuz they fly so fast and acrobatically. My favorite bird might be a junco, tbh. I love when they hang out on my lawn.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Yes, I can see that. Our California junco is a tiny brown birds with a black head. Same as yours?

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Meg Oolders's avatar

Our are tiny, too. More charcoal than brown and always among friends.

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Amber Marshall's avatar

I love the sci-fi framing of this. And the romance, of course 😍

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Meg Oolders's avatar

OF COURSE!!!! 😁🥰

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Nevena Pascaleva's avatar

Ohh what an incredible, impossible, marvellous story! I loved it!

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Meg Oolders's avatar

Thank you, Nevena! So pleased this one found you. 💜🥂

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Tolly Moseley's avatar

This was so cinematic, top to bottom. I want to see this scene on a screen, and I genuinely teared up at the flashbacks with the parents: teaching the friend to ride a bike, mom at the nursing home, dancing with the residents. Love this Meg, your ability to not only write a quick dystopian romance but the compassion for humanity tucked inside of it.

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Kim Druker Stockwell's avatar

What a ride this piece is...up and down, around with sharp turns...I love science fiction...the unreal is assumed to be the ordinary and we are waking up in the middle of it. Very cool, Meg.

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Meg Oolders's avatar

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜

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