PodCastle 83: The Petrified Girl
Show Notes
Rated R: for desert weather, both heat and storms.
The Petrified Girl
by Katherine Sparrow
Besides, Tucson was too hot in summer.
It was so hot, way up into the hundred and tens, that the only refuge was in Betty’s pool. We stayed out there the whole hot afternoon, and when the sun went down it didn’t even get all that much cooler. Neither of us had a stitch of clothes on as we lay submerged, lying on twin yellow plastic floatables. It was good to be naked with Betty, I could look over at her and see all the things a body could survive. She had that old desert skin that bore a million wrinkles and just hung off her. It made me feel like maybe I could survive in this world too. Betty kept our cups of Jim Beam and Mountain Dew full all afternoon and into the night, cause as she said it, it was too hot not to drink. On about midnight, the hot air was just starting to feel bareable again, but neither of us were keen on getting out.
About the Author
Katherine Sparrow
Katherine Sparrow writes middle-grade, young adult, and adult fiction for humans of all ages. She understands that all stories are sneaky. Sometimes they take you somewhere fun and exciting. Other times they change minds and save lives. Her fiction tries really hard to do both. She was nominated for a Nebula Award, attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop, and organizes workshops for writers at all parts of their journey.
When not writing, she spends her time chasing two young children around, enjoying Seattle’s ample and lovely gloom, and planting things in a garden that mostly molds.
About the Narrator
Marguerite Croft
Marguerite Croft lives by the ocean just south of San Francisco. She has read stories for Podcastle and Escape Pod, and provided the audio narration for Tim Pratt’s The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl. She makes regular appearances on the Point Mystic podcast where she is also a story developer and script editor.
