Your special 100 word Christmas story: “Zuzu’s Bell”
In honor of the holiday, I have something nice running at Escape Pod this week. Not sure when it’ll go live, but it’ll be today or tomorrow. [EDIT- it'll be up tomorrow. For now, go listen to the brilliant James Patrick Kelly's story, Candy Art!] But I’ve been feeling subversive and naughty lately, and had some thoughts about It’s A Wonderful Life. Also running through my head is Neil Gaiman’s wonderful 100 word holiday tale, “Nicholas Was,” and so I decided to write my own. So thank you Neil for the inspiration, and thank you Frank Capra for the material.
And Happy Holidays to everyone.
Zuzu’s Bell
Lucifer despairs on the celebration of His birth.
Lucifer stinks with the feces of the hopeless, the wretched. Daily he bathes in the tears of the woebegone; he hopes to find the one moment where He Above overlooks, disregards, forgets. Then it will be Lucifer’s time.
His back twinges with memories of wings long gone. His wings shattered upon striking Earth Below, but his shoulders remember. Always.
But it is this night when the fiery sky opens. Unholy ichor sprays as white wings burst from Lucifer’s back and he looks up to hear the unexpected.
One silver bell.
(Copyright 2009, Mur Lafferty. Some Rights Reserved. BY-NC-ND)
Super special thanks to Rick Stringer of Variant Frequencies for the holiday card PDF!
E-Book PDF: Open in New Window | Download
Category: Projects, Short Stories, Writing
This is excellent. I always thought that Zuzu girl had less than nice motives with keeping her rose intact.
Wow. This reads like a poem. The imagery in that second paragraph is chilling. And the ending…not exactly what Lucifer was hoping for (or what Zuzu thought, for that matter.) Excellent work. Thanks for sharing.
Wow. At first it felt…ponderous, and then the entire implication of ZUZU and Christmas, and what Christmas means…. Very powerful… thank you.
David
Excellent buildup and a great point!
Now I have to see how It’s a Wonderful and Dogma work as a double feature…
Coooooooool.