FEATURED STORY
RECENT STORIES
STORIES BY TOPIC
NEWS
TRANSPORTER
Take me to a...
SEARCH
Enter any portion of the author name or story title:
For more options, try our:
SUBSCRIBE
Sign up for free daily sci-fi!
your email will be kept private
TIDBITS
Get a copy of Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One. 260 adventures into new worlds, fantastical and science fictional. Rocket Dragons Ignite: the anthology for year two, is also available!
SUBMIT
Publish your stories or art on Daily Science Fiction:
If you've already submitted a story, you may check its:
DAILY SCI-FI
Not just rockets & robots...
"Science Fiction" means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.






art by Cheryl Owen-Wilson

Wolf, or Faith in the Future

Michelle Ann King writes SF, dark fantasy, and horror from her kitchen table in Essex, England. She has worked as a mortgage underwriter, supermarket cashier, makeup artist, tarot reader, and insurance claims handler before having the good fortune to be able to write fulltime. Find details of her stories and books at transientcactus.co.uk.

I wish it would rain.
I mean, it does rain, obviously. Every Tuesday at midnight, every Friday at noon. It's not a bad arrangement. Everybody's asleep on Tuesday, and ducking inside for an early lunch on a Friday is never a bad thing.
But if you do get caught in it, it's okay. It's good rain. Never too hard, never too cold. Never a nasty, needling torrent that stung your face and soaked you even if you had an umbrella, because it somehow managed to come down at the perfect diagonal angle to get underneath.
No, this rain is soft and has the icy edge taken off, even on Tuesday nights. It's refreshing, like a cool shower on a hot day. It's perfect rain. Of course it is. I still keep an umbrella, though. I have a special stand for it and everything. Once a month or so, I dust it.
We had a dog, back in the days when it used to rain properly. A big thing, all bristly grey fur and sharp white teeth, that terrified the neighbors. Terrified everyone, really. My father used to say she was fourteen parts wolf and one part grizzly bear. My mum said not to believe him, but I always did. Every word. He said the dog would protect us from burglars, and that was true. We didn't have much, but what we did have was safe as houses. Which was a strange thing to say, really, since most houses didn't seem that safe at all.
We have a dog now, too. She's allowed to roam free up and down the staircases, in and out of the rooms, around and around the gardens. I told my son she's fourteen parts wolf and one part grizzly bear, but he didn't believe me. He said she has way more than fifteen parts, and got the schematics out of the box to show me. And what was a wolf, anyway?
I don't remember my old dog's name. Our current dog doesn't have one. We've still never been burgled, though. Of course we haven't. They don't make burglars any more.
My father's been dead for a hundred and fifty-five years. 'It's all going to be so much better,' he used to say. 'You wait and see.'
I believed him. Of course I did. I still do. So I carry on waiting.
My middle daughter is having a baby. I tell her what the definition of having used to be, and she's stunned. She has nightmares for three days, and my husband is furious with me. We've left all that kind of horror behind, he reminds me. I apologize, and offer to pay for a wipe. She accepts my apology and my money, and everything goes back to normal. I promise my husband I won't do it again.
Times change, situations change, people change. Needs change. I understand that. Of course I do.
Language changes, too. Evolves. We have a whole new dictionary now, words for things that didn't exist before. And a different definition of horror. Or maybe that's just me.
I name our dog Wolf, and tell my son it's an ancient word that means faith in the future. I'm not sure if he believes me or not.
We go for a walk in the gardens, Wolf and I. The day is clear and fine, the flowers brightly colored. I tell her to sniff the sweetly perfumed breeze, and she does as she's told. She's a very obedient dog. Of course she is.
She asks me if I want her to display the chemical composition of the air, and I tell her that won't be necessary. I can tell it isn't going to rain.
The End
This story was first published on Monday, November 4th, 2013


Author Comments

This story was born during a dull rainy day, when I was thinking, "come on, we live in the future--why haven't we found a way to control the weather yet?" Then, I started thinking about what else might get controlled, and whether it would actually be a good thing.

- Michelle Ann King
Become a Member!

We hope you're enjoying Wolf, or Faith in the Future by Michelle Ann King.

Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.

Daily Science Fiction is not accepting memberships or donations at this time.

Rate This Story
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):

Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.

5.1 Rocket Dragons Average
Share This Story
Join Mailing list
Please join our mailing list and receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept 100% private):