Written And Read By

Tensegrity is the peculiar internal tension holding upright a structure that appears on the delicate brink of collapse. In this story, that structure is a social media influencer named Jason.

1. the characteristic property of a stable three-dimensional structure consisting of members under tension that are contiguous and members under compression that are not.

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From the cabin of her semi, gliding along the desert highway, Jolene's eyes are settled on the blurry distance. Until one day, when, paused in a throb of traffic, she spots a tiny thing camouflaged against the roadside scrub. Motherly instinct drags her out into the midday heat, where she catches a teetering little girl, mid collapse.

Fred dials her for the ninth time.  “Jo, I don’t know if… you’re probly not getting these.”  The realization makes him tremble. “Look, no matter what happened, you can call me, okay?”

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Poorly Imagined Life is the story of an old man and a young man. They don't know one another (but are eager in their assumptions, from surreptitious distance). And, of Denea, the thread that lassos them together at the ankles.

“Would you want to live forever?” she asks him, out of nowhere.

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Surface Tension is the story of a man, blinking and frozen amidst the fury of a race riot. In part one, we rewind him into a child. We speed back up in part two and shoot him back into his paralytic, furious present.

“Whiskey? Lemme tell you bout drinkin whiskey. Stuff’ll put hair on your back! Your great grandad knew everything was to know bout drinkin whiskey, so I learnt from the best.” ~ Our hero’s grandfather, way back in the beginning. With no one to talk to but himself, after putting the young boy to sleep, and finishing his bottle, in the emptiness of the night.

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Episode 5 is the story of a fourteen year old girl named Aema, as told by her grandfather.  He is telling himself that he's doing his best to portray her in an honest, and sympathetic light.  He's telling himself this, because he's not telling her anything.

"This is something that I did for her.  And, obviously, I did it for myself too, but not solely.  Of course, she’s still so young, she may still only see things one of two ways.”

- Grandpa, afterwards

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Read along in full here: http://nicklamendola.com/to-my-love-a-portrait-short-story

Story Four is the working title for the first piece of writing our protagonist has considered showing to the outside world.  Its main character is an aspiring writer, working on a character.  He writes about the character his character is writing about, in a way that makes it obvious that in writing about his character, he is writing about himself.

It's coming out slowly, and already he knows that it won't be easy to tell when this one is finished.

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Episode 3 takes place on the shore of a frozen lake, where five people find themselves stumbling through the bleary projections of a wicked, haunted old house.

“Second floor had a real bad draft.” - Frank, two weeks later, who still wouldn’t admit he’d seen or heard anything unusual.

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Episode 2 is the story of a young girl plucked out of a comfortable present and into a lonely, desolate future.

"The tricky thing about the apocalypse is, it's hard to tell if you're looking at its nasty face lumbering towards ya or the big, pimply ass it drags behind." - Mr. Rodney

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Episode 1 is about a woman named Malayah, and her introduction to a mind altering time travel technology.

“With the press of a button you will be transported through time towards a moment of your choosing, later or much later, out of this life and into a new one.”

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