Short Story
The Shape of My Name
- by Nino Cipri
- Tor.com Original Fiction, 4 March 2015 [webzine]
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 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.
