SF Canada member Michèle Laframboise’s latest story, “I’ll Be Moon for Christmas”, lends a wistful holiday air to the Nov/Dec issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.
On the stage, four jazzmen undulated like pale algae fronds, sending up blues notes in the stale air of the Ribald Café.
The long moody harmonics spouted from the brass instruments joined the blue smoke ghosts rising from the make-believe cigs most patrons were using. The musicians were playing pitch perfect, of course, an instrumental rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon,” an oldie that always made the younger ones among us smile.
The interior decor was doing its best to make us forget where we were: lustrous vermilion drapes framing the scene, glossy leafy plants in every unused corner, the ceiling painted in a trompe-l’oeil illusion of rising skyrises through a glass roof, even with random flocks of pale gray doves flying overhead. The scents that mingled with the false tobacco were the typical blends of true coffee beans.
Read a longer excerpt here and subscribe to Asimov’s here.
This is Michele’s fourth story for Asimov’s. Read more about it at her website!