Fabulous vignette by the magnificent new sf writer, Benjamin Rosenbaum. If you can find a copy of the July issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, scarf it up and devour his brilliant, comical, touching debut short story, “The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale.” Not since Bradley Denton’s “The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians” and David Marusek’s “The Wedding Party” have I been so gobsmacked by a short story in a magazine.

A light bulb salesman fell in love with a duck.

He followed the duck to Canada in his little red van, the light bulbs rattling and clicking in their cases.

Past trout, moose, and grizzly bears, and into the tundra, he drove the van, calling to his duck beloved, “Sarah, my darling, will you come to me, will you lay your small head against my knees?”

Driving, sleeping, he dreamt of the duck, of kissing her webbed feet, of laughing together by the lakeside, of holding a can of beer for her to drink from in the summer night.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Pat!)