Excerpt from “Immanent Ghosthood” by Christine Texeira

by Anca Szilagyi

The final reading of the Furnace’s fourth season is next week! We’re excited to feature fiction from Christine Texeira. Here’s a taste of “Immanent Ghosthood,” which tells the story of a young girl, her father, their game of Mortal Kombat, and the mysterious sense of loss that between them hums:

He drove slowly and lit a cigarette. Elle worried about what might seep into the car through the window he rolled down. But only the smoke went out. It was like his ghost, willfully blown out over the water. It sunk down to the bottom, back to where there was dry dirt and foundation stone, and then emerged again from the river. The smoke then in the watery form of a man, dripping from his white button-up, pens in his chest pocket leaking and mixing, his glasses large and impossible to see through. Elle watched this form of her father sink back behind the railings of the bridge, allowing her eyes to refocus and hear the heaving breaths of the real watery man beside her.

Join us May 18 at 7 pm at Hollow Earth Radio, 2018 A East Union Street, or tune in online at hollowearthradio.org.