Professor Tronn, the noted geologist, had been speaking about his research. No one was listening closely, but every few seconds we would nod our heads as if interesting, original, and extremely wise points had possibly been made. Tronn had just emphasized his theory that the crustal shaking that so concerned us was merely a by-product of stronger movements well underneath us, near the center of the planet. That was when another reverberation came, not as strong this time as the one that … [Read more...]
“Earth-Shaker – V” / A Memorable Fancy #307
10 April, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[It was a day of three digits, like “911.” This was April 10th, “410.” Today we finally caught sight of the being that had so distressed us, this Thing, this Bane that we learned to call “Earth-Shaker.”] Pine Creek, in southwest Arkansas, wasn’t much of a stream to begin with but now it just – poured down a hole. Lukey Moss set his toy sailboat on Pine Creek to watch it disappear, because it was a present from his uncle Russ and he didn’t like his Uncle Russ. Pine Creek disappeared into … [Read more...]
“Earth-Shaker – IV” / A Memorable Fancy #303
6 April, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[It was a day of three digits, like “911.” This was “410.” On April 10th, we finally caught sight of the being that had so distressed us. But long before that day we had been scourged by this Thing, this Bane that we learned to call “Earth-Shaker.”] What was Earth-Shaker? Why was it causing these events? There were many theories. Act of God. Act of Beelzebub. Revenge of God. Quantum event. Appeasing the Shaker was attempted. We sacrificed crops, goats, virgins – no, I lied: not virgins. We … [Read more...]
“Earth-Shaker – III” / A Memorable Fancy #300
3 April, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[It was a day of three digits, like “911.” This was “410.” On April 10th, we finally caught sight of the being that had so distressed us. But long before that day we had been scourged by this Thing, this Bane that we learned to call “Earth-Shaker.”] Not just fields and dance-floors, but homes, too, were affected. Some people were afraid to visit their basements; others had disappeared there, taken into the earth. Gradually, basements were abandoned. On Staten Island, for instance, an old … [Read more...]
“Earth-Shaker – II” / A Memorable Fancy #296
30 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[It was a day of three digits, like “911.” This was “410.” On April 10th, we finally caught sight of the being that had so distressed us. But long before that day we had been scourged by this Thing, this Bane that we learned to call “Earth-Shaker.”] In the atmosphere of general panic, Earth-Shaker was blamed for any unexplained event. Farmers, for example, told reporters that their crops were being pulled into the earth. The Shaker stole crops, they claimed: roots of plants, grasped, sucked … [Read more...]
“Earth-Shaker – I: The Coming of Earth-Shaker” / A Memorable Fancy #293
27 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It was a day of three digits, like “911.” This was “410.” On April 10th, we finally caught sight of the being that had so distressed us. But long before that day we had been scourged by this Thing, this Bane that we learned to call “Earth-Shaker.” The first effects, last August, were reported as unrelated oddities: sinkholes in Florida, for instance, that sucked garden hoses, and homes, to their occasional doom. But then people in several states reported a slight shaking of the earth, not … [Read more...]
Memorable Fancies 