The Library of Afro Curiosities, page 5
Change
In his attempts to explain the new direction of his life to his parents, he employed this metaphor:
All of my life, I have been a Jordan head, rocking the latest heat, damn near a hypebeast with a closet full of 1s, 3s, 4s, and 11s. And that was cool—for a while.
Now I’m sensing I need a change, a chance to step away from the hype and truly be myself. It’s time for me to rock my Air Max 1s.
Of course his parents didn’t understand this, but they understood what it was like to long for change.
The Mountain
Deja Rae stood at the foot of the mountain, watching the sunlight pierce through it. The mountain was now the largest recorded in the history of the world, and it still managed to grow a little each year.
Some of the people in her village referred to it as a giant bubble. Her great-grandmother once said, “It’s not much to look at, but at least it’s here, where it can’t cause any more problems.”
Deja didn’t know what her great-grandmother meant, but she couldn’t imagine anything about the mountain being bad.
She just wanted to admire all of the plastic.
The Reviews
Even though, for the most part, the book was reviewed favorably, the critics seemed to home in on the chapters involving the descendants of the enslaved man who had flown to Africa, then on to Haiti. They couldn’t make sense of the stories, although they sensed there was a connection between them. One critic even opined the author had run out of ideas when he wrote that the descendant of said enslaved man was abducted by aliens in the parking lot of an HBCU. Still, others chose not to read any more into it than they had the other stories.
Acknowledgments
“Planet 4C” was published in Blind Corner Literary Journal and won the prize for Afrofuturism Microfiction; “Cold” was published in A Story In 100 Words; a version of “Ignominious” was published in 101 Words; “Junior’s Quick Stop” was published in The Drabble; a version of “Library Dreams” was published in 50-Word Stories; “A Pool of Thoughts” was published in The Centifictionist; and “A Hair Story,” “Lonely,” and “Searching for Water Where It Never Rains” were published in The Hampton Renaissance.
Special thanks to Elle and Zoë for their endless love and support. It is much easier to write when you have a team around you.
Additional thanks to the Dumas Collective (Sabin, Van, and Chris), my parents, Torrey H. Walker, Scott Semegran, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Rion Amilcar Scott, Grant Faulkner, Matty Dalrymple, Amy Jones, Mitchell Davis, Kelvin Watson, Guy Gonzalez, Tina Rollins, Gladys Bell, Tina McElroy Ansa, the James River Writers, and Dr. Laurie Carter.
Also by Ran Walker
B-Sides and Remixes
30 Love: A Novel
Mojo’s Guitar: A Novel/(Il était une fois Morris Jones)
Afro Nerd in Love: A Novella
The Keys of My Soul: A Novel
The Race of Races: A Novel
The Illest: A Novella
Bessie, Bop, or Bach: Collected Stories
Four Floors (with Sabin Prentis)
Black Hand Side: Stories
White Pages: A Novel
She Lives in My Lap
Reverb
Work-In-Progress
Daykeeper
Most of My Heroes Don’t Appear On No Stamps
Portable Black Magic: Tales of the Afro Strange
The Strange Museum: 50-Word Stories
Bees + Things + Flowers: Microfictions
The World Is Yours: Microfictions
Can I Kick It?: Sneaker Microfiction and Poetry
The Golden Book: A 50-Year Marriage Told In 50-Word Stories
Keep It 100: 100-Word Stories
A Burst of Gray: A Novel In 100-Word Stories
The Library of Afro Curiosities: 100-Word Stories
About the Author
Ran Walker (he/him) is the author of twenty-five books. His short stories, flash fiction, microfiction, and poetry have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journals. Prior to becoming a writer and educator, he worked in magazine publishing and practiced law in Mississippi.
He is the winner of the Indie Author Project's 2019 National Indie Author of the Year Award (selected by judges from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, IngramSpark, St. Martin's Press, and Writer's Digest), the 2019 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Best Fiction Ebook Award, the 2018 Virginia Indie Author Project Award for Adult Fiction, and the 2021 Blind Corner Afrofuturism Microfiction Contest. Ran is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hampton University and teaches with Writer's Digest University. He lives in Virginia with his wife and much better half, Lauren, and his amazing "galaxy princess" daughter, Zoë.
Ran Walker, The Library of Afro Curiosities
