Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
Sweet, floral perfume hung on the stale air of a forgotten warehouse. Wafting among corroded pipes, which wove their way along a high ceiling and around long, dusty windows. Drifting through the trash and dead leaves scattered across a concrete floor. Reflecting off once-white walls and old, broken furniture. I was following a trail of … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Making Change
Brushed with soft pink hues in the fading evening light, full white dandelion heads stretched away from either side of a dirt path. Evidence of a wishing festival lay scattered all around me - broken, bald stalks discarded in the dirt. On still air rode the scent of sap and cut grass, warning other plants … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Seed of Doubt
Just peculiar enough to look like an accident, a white truck hulked beneath a tree in bloom. The pale pollen and petals piled upon its windshield, however, revealed that it had huddled below the heavy branches for a long time. Nighttime crouched like a presence between the tree trunk and the car door. A rustling … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Next Time
When I went to ride the elevator back downstairs, I found a pair of legs sticking out of the doors of the only working car. They had not been there when I first came up, looking clean but uncomfortable against the grimy concrete floor. Unmoving. Out of place. The elevator dinged and the doors started … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Getting Collected
As I made to step off the sidewalk of a sunny city, a car with dark windows pulled to a stop right in front of me. I scurried back up onto the walk, frowning at having my way forward blocked. But as I made to step around the intruding car, I peered within and paused, … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Take Nothing
In a wide-open field of long summer grass stood a lonesome table, covered in gray cloth and bearing a shallow wicker basket. A single shady tree overhung the table, inviting in the over-bright afternoon sunlight. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck and grass crunched beneath my feet as I approached. Behind me lay … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Summer Offering
The ocean's surface receded above as I dove downward, out of reach all too soon. Pink rays of dancing sunlight lanced into the water around me, but these, too, fell behind. As my dive lost momentum, I blew out bubbles, sinking deeper into the sea. Every direction was an empty, darkening gradient of blue. Now … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Sea Glass Below
On a clear desert night, the crush of shifting sand from just outside my tent woke me. I lay on my bedroll in the dark, listening to the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching. The gait of my visitor... lurched. Or hopped. When it stopped next to my tent, the shadow of a lengthy, humanoid shape … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Name Calling
When the waters rose and swept between the pillars of an innocuous shrine, it was said a voice could be heard by those standing beneath its graceful wooden arch. Intrigued by this rumor, I arrived there just as the rainy season petered off and stood where calm water met grass, toes bare, gazing outward at … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Whispering Waters
A ruined city glimpsed between thick clouds, spires and skyscrapers towering above the earth, breaking through the eternal fog enveloping its forgotten world. Sunlight poking through the windows illuminated dangling innards -- wires and ventilation ducts. Cold and empty and beckoning explorers and wanderers alike. I stood somewhere within the fog layer but still outside … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Lost to Hidden
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