Signs

S

The free 2020 novella written for the Mudgee Reader’s Festival.

An autistic teen and her father navigate two months of 2020.

No Stopping.

Girl leans forward. Twists her head under the windshield, looks up to the red rectangle. She takes off her seatbelt. She places her arms across the dashboard, feels the warm skin of the fake leather upon the silk of her teenage forearms. The haze-muted summer sun pelts her squinting gawk. She closes an eye.

There.

A holographic shimmer. It skitters across the sign, revealing a matrixed pattern for a rainbow to weave upon. An arrow at the bottom of the sign points back towards the defiant car.

Dad appears.


Created as part 2020 Visions for the Mudgee Reader’s Festival, the short novella Signs is available online now for free.