The alien narrator loves Alice Oxbridge, although the word love does not capture the
feeling any more accurately than space travel captures climbing into a vehicle capable
of carrying you off-planet. And our narrator has the power to erase the moments of tragedy in
Alice’s life, but he cannot do so without breaking his one unbreakable tenet and becoming
the prime example of sentient idiocy.
Alice’s was not the first birth I witnessed, nor even the most unusual. The first time
I saw Alice’s birth, I bypassed the event, skimming ahead to the advent of the
automobile. Gears fascinated me more. But on reflection, something drew me back to Alice
in the garden, newborn on the rain-wet grass. The world seemed to move beneath her.
DEBUT
“Gauging Moonlight,” in Sci Fiction,20 July 2005.
VARIANTS
Debut. “Gauging Moonlight,” in Sci Fiction,20 July 2005.
Alice’s was not the first birth I witnessed, nor even the most unusual. The first time
I saw Alice’s birth, I bypassed the event, skimming ahead to the advent of the
automobile. Gears fascinated me more. But on reflection, something drew me back to Alice
in the garden, newborn on the rain-wet grass. The world seemed to move beneath her.
1 English variant