The Shape of My Name
by Nino Cipri
In 2076 a teenaged transgender son—genetically female in a family where the ability to
time travel is passed from mother to child via mitochondrial DNA—lives with an aunt in
the house where his mother abandoned their family more than a century in the past by
traveling to a limit point in 2321 where their time machine can reach but not return.
I noticed that the time machine’s name, anachronopede, is nearly that of El Anacronópete, so I wrote to Nino Cipri to ask whether Gaspar’s novel was an inspiration. It was, said Nino, writing to me: “It is indeed a reference to El Anacronópete. I was researching time travel in fiction while writing that story, and it was the earliest mention of a time machine I could find. Plus, the name is so great.”
I picture you standing in the kitchen downstairs, over a century ago. I imagine that
you’re staring out through the little window above the sink, your eyes traveling down
the path that leads from the back door and splits at the creek; one trail leads to the
pond, and the other leads to the shelter and the anachronopede, with its rows of capsules
and blinking lights.
“The Shape of My Name” by Nino Cipri, Tor.com Original Fiction, 4 March 2015 [webzine].