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The Mother

© 1999

Technical Aspects

Story length: 2,950 words/10 pages double spaced

Voice: Third person, present tense

Genre: Science Fiction/Spiritual Fiction

Copyrighted: © 1999

Story information

Main characters: A homesick Wiccan woman and a grief-stricken miner man

Character description: The Wiccan woman is a single mother of two boys and misses the planet Earth, which is aligned with her cycles and integral to her beliefs. The miner man has fled the planet Earth because his family was killed in an earthquake and he cannot forgive the planet.

Supporting characters: None, just mentions of the families of the characters (the Wiccan woman's husband and two children Rory and Kyle, and the miner man's dead wife Janice, three kids Kendra, Delilah, and Jilly, and his living mother).

Setting: Indeterminate far future, a nameless mining planet with a dark sky and lots of white sand.

General Plot

The beginning of the story focuses on the Wiccan woman and how she feels lost without being on the planet that gave her life. She personifies the Earth and misses it like a mother, and feels the need to honor her tradition of celebrating Litha, the Midsummer, even though it is not Midsummer where she is. The man, for his part, reminisces about his dead wife and somehow gets to pondering his mother, living in a nursing home on Earth, and wishes he could visit her. Deals with the alienation we creatures of Earth might feel when separation is vast.

Information, inspiration, and other notes

This one just struck me, probably as I was reading some Wiccan literature or Web page or something. I wrote it in one sitting starting in the wee hours of the morning and going through to finish it before it was time to get up for school.

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Technical Aspects
Story length:	2,950 words/10 pages double spaced
Voice:	Third person, present tense
Genre:	Science Fiction/Spiritual Fiction
Copyrighted:	© 1999
Story information
Main characters:	A homesick Wiccan woman and a grief-stricken miner man
Character description:	The Wiccan woman is a single mother of two boys and misses the planet Earth, which is aligned with her cycles and integral to her beliefs. The miner man has fled the planet Earth because his family was killed in an earthquake and he cannot forgive the planet.
Supporting characters:	None, just mentions of the families of the characters (the Wiccan woman's husband and two children Rory and Kyle, and the miner man's dead wife Janice, three kids Kendra, Delilah, and Jilly, and his living mother).
Setting:	Indeterminate far future, a nameless mining planet with a dark sky and lots of white sand.
General Plot
The beginning of the story focuses on the Wiccan woman and how she feels lost without being on the planet that gave her life. She personifies the Earth and misses it like a mother, and feels the need to honor her tradition of celebrating Litha, the Midsummer, even though it is not Midsummer where she is. The man, for his part, reminisces about his dead wife and somehow gets to pondering his mother, living in a nursing home on Earth, and wishes he could visit her. Deals with the alienation we creatures of Earth might feel when separation is vast.
Information, inspiration, and other notes
This one just struck me, probably as I was reading some Wiccan literature or Web page or something. I wrote it in one sitting starting in the wee hours of the morning and going through to finish it before it was time to get up for school.