Our souls, like waterways, reveal themselves in gradations of being: there are streams—crystalline and clear, where sunlight shines through to the shimmering stones beneath the surface; and there are rivers—tempestuous in their temperament, and as you traverse their serpentine paths, you can find both rapids that roar and a silent stillness somewhere that, if you…
IT was nothing. IT was everything. IT was nowhere and IT was everywhere. IT stretched from shore to horizon, from planet to heliosphere, and from every galaxy to the edge of the universe. Yet, it occupied no space at all. Many aeons ago, an ape-like creature that inhabited a pale planet in an old unremarkable…
A frightful foreboding filled the room as Adira stood before her mother. Her cheeks were ruby red with anger, and her mother’s skin was glowing in the sunset’s scarlet lights. Both women held onto their waists and leaned forward as if bracing themselves against the other’s attack. While watching the two squaring off, one would…
[This piece was submitted to the Future of Life Institute as part of a global AI World Building competition. The full submission containing more material was selected among the top 20 finalists. If you are reading this before June 15 2022, like the finalist announcement on Twitter and send us your feedback via the main…
The pungent fumes of cheap cigarettes had chased me away from the back of the bar – where I liked to sit – to the counter. I found a spot that was being bathed by the evening breeze hissing through a broken pane and pulled a stool. It’s fine, I thought, no need to fuss…
Underachievement in Gifted Students It is a warm, Saturday afternoon, and I am sitting in the library of a certain National school in the distant outskirts of Nairobi. I cast my eyes about and admire the impressive collection of books all around. In front of me, a quiet Form 2 student flips through an old…
The Greater East African Colony: 2084 AD Department of Astrobiology (DoA), Sector C. 12: 45pm He sat silently at his bench, motionless, and not a hair on his skin acknowledged the presence of the young lass hovering beside him. Aliya Kendi was a post-doctoral beauty that had but a scanty supply of flesh around her…
The warm sunshine struggled through the heavy fog that hang above the town. The morning seemed calm and quiet, such that one would be led to believe that all was well with the world. From a red Corrado that had just sped into the hospital’s parking lot, emerged a man. It was 7.00 am. The…
“I need you to lie on your side, Mr. James. Can you do that for me? Good, good. Now, pull your knees up towards your chest and relax.” Mr. James complied. It was his sixth day here, and he was now willing to do anything in order to get out. Well, perhaps not anything, but,…
Parents often toss a prayer into the heavens when their little minions run off to school – their small hands clutching onto their jingling pockets, heavy with the pennies that they had stolen and those that their mothers had reluctantly given them. Parents hope that their children’s march…