Grumbles

By Francis Bass

Claudio returns to the house of his uncle Terrance, one of his many guardians during his tumultuous childhood, to decide what memorabilia he wants to take with him on his move to the asteroid belt. As he sifts through old scrapbooks and toys, he re-discovers “Grumbles,” a robot companion from his adolescence with an acerbic, sardonic attitude. Space is limited on the shuttle out to the belt, so Claudio and Grumbles argue heatedly about which objects are worth taking, and which items present a distorted recording of the past.

This publication includes an afterword by the author describing the origin of the story, the process of editing it, and some of the author's own memory-recording habits.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Bass
• Release date: Mar 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370908158

Francis Bass

Francis Bass is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. His work has appeared in RECKONING, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, and others. He lives in Philadelphia.

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Grumbles

Copyright © 2017 by Francis Bass

All rights reserved.

Cover font Rolling No One by Dieter Steffmann.

Distributed by Smashwords.

Table of Contents

Grumbles

Afterword

Just like last time, I went there to move out. Uncle Terrance wasn’t the kind of relative anyone visited just to see, and I didn’t visit any other relatives anyway. The last time I’d contacted anyone was when I’d called Josh to try to set up a get-together.

I walked up to the expansive country farmhouse, into the shade of the gray wood porch. I pushed the buzzer, and waited. I wondered if the place had looked this run down when I had lived there. In my head, the house had had a charming colonial façade, with detailed carvings on the columns and doorframe. But the only thing I saw close to detailing was the chipped paint and mold splotches on the ceiling.

The door opened.

Hello, Claudio. Uncle Terrance stood in the dimness within. He didn’t like to have lights on during the day, I recalled.

Hey, Uncle Terrance. How are you?

Come on in, he said.

I stepped inside, engulfed in the reek of marijuana and tobacco.

Most of your stuff’s up there, Terrance said. In your room.

Okay. Do you still have the VR room?

Uncle Terrance lowered his prickly white eyebrows. Yes.

Oh, great.

Expensive to uninstall it, he said.

Oh, right.

You going to take it with you?

No, there’s no way I’d be able to afford that, I chuckled. The ODT alone weighed about two hundred pounds, and weight was money on the shuttle.

I ascended the