Waiting for the Rain
Rachel, I made my decision today. Well, it seems like I made it today. Maybe it was made for me when I was born, and today was merely the day when I finally realized it. All I know is, I can’t go on this way any more. I feel as if I’ve been trying to focus on something my whole life, and I’ve only now managed to see clearly. Yes, that’s it. The answer is simple when you look at it that way. It’s like I’ve suddenly made sense of a hopelessly tangled Remellian configuration. Such a simple diagnosis really. I don’t need any psyche-scan to tell me : I’m not human.
Did that shock you, Rachel? Don’t worry, I still look the same as when we were together, older maybe, I don’t know, but still human, still human. All the appendages are there, no extra ones. My skin’s still that sort of dirty colour that you didn’t like. You always used to say that I’d spent too long under the Remellian sun, remember? But you could never get me off-world, could you? No matter how hard you tried. I’ve even grown a beard, can you believe it? So you can rest easy, I look human. You wouldn’t be able to pick that there was anything strange about me, except maybe if you looked into my eyes. But what’s an appearance? Just a shell, isn’t it? It’s what’s inside that counts. And I know now that I’m not human inside. It’s taken me a while to work it out – half a life time – but it’s true. I’m actually Remellian. I’m a Remellian born inside a human body.
Illustration by Andrew Saltmarsh
Did that shock you, Rachel? Don’t worry, I still look the same as when we were together, older maybe, I don’t know, but still human, still human. All the appendages are there, no extra ones. My skin’s still that sort of dirty colour that you didn’t like. You always used to say that I’d spent too long under the Remellian sun, remember? But you could never get me off-world, could you? No matter how hard you tried. I’ve even grown a beard, can you believe it? So you can rest easy, I look human. You wouldn’t be able to pick that there was anything strange about me, except maybe if you looked into my eyes. But what’s an appearance? Just a shell, isn’t it? It’s what’s inside that counts. And I know now that I’m not human inside. It’s taken me a while to work it out – half a life time – but it’s true. I’m actually Remellian. I’m a Remellian born inside a human body.
Illustration by Andrew Saltmarsh
Praise for "Waiting for the Rain"
A genius… Wow.... Strasser has this amazing way of writing that's just too far ahead of his time. (I'm not talking about the elements of his story but the way he actually writes.) I like how his works are existentially fraught. I had to read his work, Waiting for the Rain, for my literature class and now I'm just obsessed with him and the stories that he makes.”
Cosmos
It takes an astounding work for literature to make me feel something by heart and soul. Waiting For The Rain by Dirk Strasser is one of the only two stories that have hit me so hard that my mind is just so blank right now. Seriously, I want to just cry. I have never read something that embodies the quintessential definition of sadness like this story.
Lucid Dreaming
One of my all-time favorite stories is by Dirk Strasser. It's called "Waiting for the Rain" and it appeared in an Australian anthology... it's good to hear he's still out and about in the fiction world.Monstrous Musings
Strasser's Waiting For the Rain (Universe 2 - Robert Silverberg Ed) is a fascinating psychological analysis – something I always thought to be unfortunately rare in the SF genre.”
Fresh Ink
My first must-have is Ted Chiang's ‘Story of Your Life’ – my all-time favorite short story. Another is Dirk Strasser's Waiting for the Rain.”
My Perfect Anthology (Tor.com)
Perhaps the most impressive story in the collection is Dirk Strasser’s "Waiting for the Rain", a convincing tale about becoming alien.
SF Commentary
Honorable Mention in Year's Best Science Fiction 10th Annual Collection (edited by Gardner Dozois)
Cosmos
It takes an astounding work for literature to make me feel something by heart and soul. Waiting For The Rain by Dirk Strasser is one of the only two stories that have hit me so hard that my mind is just so blank right now. Seriously, I want to just cry. I have never read something that embodies the quintessential definition of sadness like this story.
Lucid Dreaming
One of my all-time favorite stories is by Dirk Strasser. It's called "Waiting for the Rain" and it appeared in an Australian anthology... it's good to hear he's still out and about in the fiction world.Monstrous Musings
Strasser's Waiting For the Rain (Universe 2 - Robert Silverberg Ed) is a fascinating psychological analysis – something I always thought to be unfortunately rare in the SF genre.”
Fresh Ink
My first must-have is Ted Chiang's ‘Story of Your Life’ – my all-time favorite short story. Another is Dirk Strasser's Waiting for the Rain.”
My Perfect Anthology (Tor.com)
Perhaps the most impressive story in the collection is Dirk Strasser’s "Waiting for the Rain", a convincing tale about becoming alien.
SF Commentary
Honorable Mention in Year's Best Science Fiction 10th Annual Collection (edited by Gardner Dozois)
Publication History
"Waiting for the Rain" has been published several times, including in the German anthology Lenins Zahn und Stalins Tränen as "Warten auf den Regen". Read some of my thoughts on transalienation and this story.
Buy Aurealis Duo: Transalienation.
Buy Aurealis Duo: Transalienation.
|
|
