By Ife J. Ibitayo
My short story “Precious Junk and Swift Riches” has been published in issue #4 of tdotSpec’s Speculative North Magazine. I wrote this story to discuss the question: “Can life really go too fast?” A fast-paced life is not free. It’s an exchange many of us make, yet we all too often don’t consider the cost:
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Story Excerpt
Time seemed to slow as I jerked the steering wheel to the left, stomped on the brakes, and adjusted my magnetic balancing. Lucky Larry 2 cartwheeled to the side, and I stepped on the gas, more tentatively this time. An opponent veered in front of me. I tried to maneuver around them, but they kept blocking my path.
A section of track in front of us dropped away. I pulsed my magnets and leapt over the gap but right where I was going to land, another wall materialized. The hovercraft in front of me was going to crash into it anyway, but I still mouthed “Sorry,” as I angled my hovercraft upward and pulsed my magnets off their roof. I leapfrogged over the hovercraft and smashed it into the ground in the process.
I was in second place as I looped around a large semicircular curve. As I neared the racer in first, I took the inside corner to inch ahead of them. I glanced to the left and saw the bottom of their hovercraft. Its powerful electromagnets were pointed at my mirror.
“As if!” I said, and as they activated his electromagnets, I rolled toward then and activated mine. I barely rocked in place, but the extra force of my magnets sent them flying off the course.
As I drove down the final straightaway, I relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. I lifted my hand to wipe sweat from my brow, but the track under me abruptly tilted like a seesaw. Because the rest of the track in front of me was level, the abrupt change in orientation flung my hovercraft onto its side.
In the millisecond I had to react, I tried to right the hovercraft with my hand that was still clutching the steering wheel, but it wasn’t enough. The hovercraft continued rolling, and I closed my eyes as the track rushed up to meet me. The roof crunched as it caved in, and I screamed as my hovercraft slid upside down across the track.