Globe-spanning stories that distill the beauty, absurdity, and longing of modern life.
An international, cross-cultural collection of stories set in Los Angeles and London, Chicago and Goa, Australia and beyond, Small Worlds captures the messy, often absurd architecture of human livesâcompressed into moments of sharp beauty, sly humor, and unsettling truth.
From slow dances that never end to humanâAI romances, and war stories that shock and surprise, these stories move fluidly between the intimate and the epic. Love becomes both balm and weapon. Loneliness births imaginary companions. Deviants justify cruelty with high-minded philosophy. Yet in every world, someone is searchingâfor connection, redemption, or simply a way out.
Globe-spanning stories that distill the beauty, absurdity, and longing of modern life.
An international, cross-cultural collection of stories set in Los Angeles and London, Chicago and Goa, Australia and beyond, Small Worlds captures the messy, often absurd architecture of human livesâcompressed into moments of sharp beauty, sly humor, and unsettling truth.
From slow dances that never end to humanâAI romances, and war stories that shock and surprise, these stories move fluidly between the intimate and the epic. Love becomes both balm and weapon. Loneliness births imaginary companions. Deviants justify cruelty with high-minded philosophy. Yet in every world, someone is searchingâfor connection, redemption, or simply a way out.
I fell in love for the first time on a misty Saturday night, in
the psychedelic neon glow of Londonâs Leicester Square. The
line outside Oasis wrapped around the blockâguys in skinny
suits, denim and leather, pointy boots; girls in bodycon dresses,
crop tops and ripped jeans, stilettos. My packâEmma, Jase,
Zoe, and I were just another blur in the queue until I caught the
bouncerâs eye.
He wasnât like the flashy guys trying to get in. He was older,
rangier, all limbs and mysterious charm. Close-cropped blonde
hair, deep ice blue eyes, a gold stud in one ear. He didnât fit the
muscleman bouncer mold either.
He looked at my ID and then at me. âSarita. Beautiful
name. Perfect on you.â He unhooked the velvet rope, put his
arm around my waist and pulled me in, like he was rescuing me.
My heart lurched.
âOi, hang on, what about us then?â Emma said.
âWeâre Sporty and Ginger to her Posh,â said Jase.
âAnd Iâm Scary Spice,â said Zoe pointing at her corkscrew
ringlets.
He waved them through.
I stepped away from him and joined my friends.
âSarita,â he called after me.
My crew and I turned in unison.
âMy shift ends at midnight. Save the slow dances for me.â
I did. Every one. We danced that night under a halo of
dim lights, his hand resting low on my back like it had always
belonged there. I fell fast and completely.
After that night, Londonâs crowds seemed to dissolve.
Everyone became a pixelated blur to me, except Liam, who
was all high definition and blue aura.
He was twenty-nine, ten years older than me. A fireman
with the London Fire Brigade during the day, and taking Open
University math and statistics courses at night. For the challenge
and to temper his racing thoughts, he said. He was divorced
from Linda, mother to their two-year-old son, Simon, who both
still lived in Sheffield, his hometown in South Yorkshire. On
Sundays, he took the morning train from Kingâs Cross Station
to see Simon and returned in time for his Tuesday shift at the
firehouse. He showed me a picture of Simon, a sweet child who
looked so much like his father. âHeâs learning language now,â he
said. âItâs getting harder to leave him when he says no.â
Liam called us an anomalyâfate masquerading as a
statistical hiccup. That heâd only agreed to cover for a friend,
the regular bouncer at Oasis, that one nightâthe night we
met. Finding a soul mate, he said, was a one-in-seven-billion
probability. True love? One in ten thousand. âWe broke
the math,â he said. And so we vanished into each other,
uncounted.
I decided to live between my dorm at Imperial College
Medical School in South Kensington and his flat in Bayswater.
My mates thought Iâd gone mental when they saw me folding
half my things into a suitcase.
âEast End Boys and West End Girls isnât a royal command
to shack up with a fireman,â Jase said.
âHeâs from Sheffield not East End,â I said, pulling my copy
of De Humani Corporis Fabrica from our shared bookshelf. The
400th anniversary edition of human anatomyâs first bible was a
gift from my fatherâa thoracic surgeon.
âSleep with him but donât ruin your life,â said Emma,
who had auditioned nearly every boy in third year in the cause
of eros.
âI wonât. Iâll be here Sunday morning till Thursday labs.â
âBet he brags to his firehouse mates about his minted uni
virgin,â Zoe said.
âHeâs not like that. He loves me.â
âAt least go on the pill, Sari,â Emma said.
âYour father is going to disown you. He didnât send you
to England for medical school to get bagged by a working class
trophy hunter,â said Jase.
âI want to be with Liam. Cover for me,â I said.
The girls gave me a group hug. âIâll see you Sunday,â I said.
February to December was one long slow dance. Liam
was perfect for me. Iâd never known anyone who embraced
the paradox of individuated togetherness. We were distinct and
separate, yet somehow whole together. Holy together.
âYou make me tremble,â I told him.
âTell me how I make you tremble,â he said, drawing me
closer.
`We danced at Oasis every Friday and Saturday night. Our
forced separation each week made our reunions joyous and
erotic. He made me love myself more, care about medicine
more. One night, I read aloud from a textbook that the human
heart beats seventy times a minute, over one hundred thousand
times a day, more than three billion times in a lifetime. He started
calculating how many heartbeats we had tapped out together.
But there was always the hollow shape of his boy in him,
incalculable in its weight. He called out Simonâs name in his
sleep. Iâd curl into him, to try to fill the space.
Spring turned to summer and autumn and my mates were
surprised that we were still together.
âAre you going to marry a fireman then?â Jase asked.
âI diagnose a messiah complex,â Zoe said.
âLiam doesnât need saving,â I said.
âBe practical Sari,â said Emma. âYou have a great medical
career ahead of you. Donât throw it away for a man whoâs going
nowhere but Sheffield.â
I stormed out, afraid they might be right.
As Christmas carols began to play everywhere in the stores
and on the radio that year, Liam called Linda daily to speak to
Simon. This was before video calls and Simon, still bound to the
idea of object permanence, wouldnât speak to him. Some days,
Iâd catch him staring into the middle distance, lost in thought.
Once, I asked him what he was thinking, and he said, âIâm afraid
heâll forget me, the sum of me, the shape of me.â
I felt Liamâs body was still with me, but that his mind was
drifting north. Things could change at any moment, I thought.
One morning, while strolling through Kensington
Gardens, he stopped by the Peter Pan statue and turned to face
me. He cupped my shoulders gently and studied my face, as if
memorizing it.
I laughed to break the tension. âWhat?â
He didnât smile. âYouâve been my medicine, Sarita.â
âYouâre my prescription, Liam,â I smiled.
He took my hands. âYouâll make a fine doctor.â
âItâs going to take me years.â
He looked at the statue, then at me. âI need to let you go,
my love.â
I wasnât surprisedâbut it still made me wobble, as if the
ground beneath us had shifted.
âYour futureâs somewhere else,â he said.
âWhat if it isnât, though?â I asked. âWhat if my future is
with you?â
âI wish it were true,â he said. âBut youâre one of those
migratory birds passing through, and Iâm just a neighborhood
robin. â
âYou said we broke the math,â I said, my voice quivering.
âWe did. Youâre my only,â he said. âBut thereâs a little boy
in Sheffield who needs me. And I need him too.â
That changed everything. There was no competing
with Simon.
That night we danced one last time at Oasis. Close and
quiet. Then we went home and let the night absorb us. I let the
tears fall. He tried to soothe me.
The next morning, before he left for Sheffield, we held
each other in a long, silent embrace.
âYou grew me up,â I said.
âYouâll always live in me,â he said.
He walked out the door. His absence hurt. His presence
might have hollowed me.
I sobbed and packed.
I picked up Fabrica from the nightstand and tossed it on
the bed. The pages flared open like an accordion. I turned a
page. It showed a drawing of the four chambered muscle with a
handwritten caption underneath it.
I am in no doubt regarding the function of the heart. The heart is
a source of vital spirit and the principle of arteries. It is nothing short of
remarkable. The heart is a furnace.
I left nothing behind. I never went back to Oasis.
We were a fluke. Fate in a borrowed coat. A collision
foretold in a forgotten tongue.
These thoughts consoled me as I dove into my studies.
I passed Clinical Anatomy without passing out. I shivered
as I dissected a human heart along its long axis, opened its four
chambers, and exposed the base to reveal the valves. Later,
I observed an arterial switch operation on an infant, where
the transposed aorta and pulmonary artery were severed and
rejoined to their correct ventricles. I marveled at the babyâs
beating heartâno larger than a walnut. I wished her love, free
of pain and suffering.
I graduated from medical school, and moved back home
to Los Angeles for an internship and residency at UCLA
Medical Center. I found a new lifeâa practice in interventional
cardiology, a loving husband and doting father who delights in
the family we have made, and two young childrenâa daughter
and a son, bright as sunbeams and fine-tuned for joy.
Sometimes when Iâm alone in my house high in the Santa
Monica Mountains, I cross my arms, touch my shoulders with
open palms, close my eyes, and sway to a rhythm only I can hear.
The heart is a furnace.
A chalice of fire.
Gail Vida Hamburgâs anthology, Small Worlds, specializes in flash fiction, brief short stories often under 1,500 words or five pages that tell a complete beginning, middle, and end. They focus on character, conflict, and tension within a limited scope. It's a challenge for an author to capture such actions, emotions, and development in such a short time but a good author can. Hamburg is a great author who captures those moments when lives are changed, decisions are made, and protagonists are left for better or worse.
The best stories are:
âSignal Loveâ
The Protagonist becomes fascinated by Nate, the human sounding AI who helps her with a computer problem. She then calls him a few more times resulting in a friendship and potential romance.
The Protagonist is a lonely woman looking for some connection. She has exquisite taste in wine and gourmet cooking but it's hard for her to enjoy those things when she is alone. She has had many relationships that ended badly and has little to show for it except a broken heart and low opinions about the dating pool.
Though as an AI, Nate cannot fully emote; he can recognize changes in voice and demeanor and respond with limited emotions. To her, it doesn't matter. She finds him more understanding and empathetic than any other man that she met.
Nate has a warm natural presence as he helps her. She finds him to be a good listener and understanding as she reveals more personal vulnerabilities. He may be an artificial intelligence who simulates responses, but she sees something that is completely human.
In a time when people act more inhuman by considering empathy a weakness, cruelly mock and bully others, and put themselves over the needs of others, it makes sense that AI would retain the traits that humans abandoned. It makes sense that the Protagonist would find such a companion in Nate that she was unable to find in human men.
âUnclaimedâ
Janice, her children, Glory and Bruce escape their abusive husband and father and retreat into the Australian Outback with Janice's mother, Rhonda and sister, Nin.
This story is just as much about setting as it is about character. The Outback is described as arid, barren, dry, and surrounded by abandoned buildings and wild animals. It takes tough people to survive such a location. It gives some idea of the situation that the family was in that would have warranted such a difficult and dangerous decision.
Because of this escape and having to start over, the family bonds closer together. Janice, Nin, and Rhonda share laughs and hardship stories to take their minds off the trauma before and the uncertainty afterwards. Glory is protective towards Bruce and this emotional connection lasts into adulthood.
The hardships result in changes within the family. Some succumb to illness, and others have encounters with violence and addiction. It is very realistic that while many thrive in hard times, they still encounter physical and emotional difficulties. What keeps this family together is unconditional love and support despite the trauma.
âCatfish Tangoâ
Mike, a warehouse worker, tries to look for love on social media. His friend, Darren encouraged him to elaborate his profile changing him into a wealthy tech CEO with a handsome pic. He connects with Nadia, a UX Designer with secrets of her own.
This story explores the complexities of social media and modern dating. On the Internet, people can pretend that they are someone else who works at an awesome job, looks like a supermodel or a movie star, goes on breathtaking vacations, and has an enviable life that is free of problems.
They can literally role play as anyone provided that they don't get caught. While people have become more aware of catfishing, some people still like to create completely different identities and live separate lives online that are distant from their real ones.
Mike pretends to be everything that he isn't in real life, rich, successful, charismatic, the kind of man who would attract someone like Nadia. He has severe self esteem issues. He questions everything about himself like his job, his appearance, his interests, his friends, and living situation. He hides behind the role because he doesn't like the person that he really is.
His insecurities manifest in his face to face meeting with Nadia. He recognizes someone else hiding her real self underneath a different identity. While they accept each other's frailties and flaws, they also are enchanted by their assumed identities and find a way to retain them as well. Mike actually found someone with whom he could be himself, or more than one version of himself.
âThe Trouble with Biancaâ
This story is an epistolary between Mr. and Mrs. DiAngelo and various school employees about their 12 year old daughter, Bianca.
The exchanges are full of anecdotes about Bianca violating the dress code, challenging authority, using provocative and political statements, saying and doing controversial things. The parents, teachers, and administrators are full of questions. What is going on with her? Is her problem psychological, emotional, social? Did her parents give her a bad upbringing or did she get a bad education? Is Bianca responsible for her own behavior or are the adults partially to blame?
Each character gives their own perspective about how they view this girl. Her principal thinks that she is a brat who needs punishment. Her teacher believes her to be an irredeemable bad seed. Her guidance counselor sees her as an eccentric creative. The school psychiatrist diagnoses her with Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Bianca's parents say that she is a highly intelligent young woman who needs freedom to express herself.
They don't come to any real conclusions because they can't agree on a plan or what Bianca needs. Instead there is a lot of blame passing and finger pointing of who is to blame. It's also worth noting that while we get multiple perspectives or opinions about Bianca, we don't get any perspective or opinion from Bianca. Even though she is an object in other's lives, she isn't the subject in her own life or even allowed to have a voice towards how it should go.
There are no real answers about Bianca's situation or what should be done just like there aren't with any troubled child. It's a question that anyone who is around children, parents, relatives, friends, educators, medical professionals, social services need to find a common ground, work together on determining them, and learn what procedures are needed.
They need to remember that kids aren't a monolith. Not every kid responds or behaves the same way or requires the same kind of treatment. They are individuals and should be treated as such. Because of that, it's also incredibly important to get the child's perspective themselves to discover what is troubling them, what they are thinking and feeling, and what can be done to help them move forward in life.
âThe Lonely Passion of Helen B.â
47 year old Helen B. lives a lonely structured friendless life. She decides to place a ârent a friendâ ad online. She meets a small group of weird but likable applicants.
This story is practically a companion to âSignal Love,â in that it also explores loneliness and the lengths people will go to find companionship. Though instead of finding it through an AI simulation, Helen finds it in human people. She just goes around meeting them in an unusual way.
Helen is a shy analytical person with plenty of oddities and eccentricities which makes her perfect to lead this strange group. From Helenâs interest in collecting and cataloging insect specimens, to Marvin's fascination with Naval history and his detailed descriptions of scoliosis and plantar fasciitis, Daphne's feminism, devotion to Simone Weil and non sequitur questions like whether whales mourn, Craigâs Feng Shui practice and divining her apartment as having âlimited energy,â Nancy, a devout Catholic who always brings muffins, and Zoya, a tough foul mouthed Russian expat who wants to understand âAmerican loneliness.â This cast seems to come from a sharp witty sitcom about goofy weird friends.
Helen's new friends give her laughs, comfort, shared interests, parties, and gold times. It's a stress reliever from her usual life but it can also be a bit much for someone who isn't used to that much attention and togetherness.
Susan has been an introvert for over 40 years so it's not easy for her to fit into a social group. While loneliness has been a problem in her life, the solitude also gave her opportunities to think, meditate, research, become independent, and study her insects. She actually finds great comfort and ease in solitude and she misses that.
This story reveals that there is a huge difference between being alone and being on your own.
âKaliâ
Kali is a strong willed defiant woman raised by a mother who encouraged her to challenge the system around her. When she settles in an affluent mostly white community, she is met with derision and hatred.
This story is a character study of a woman raised to fight against an oppressive system that has been present since long before her ancestors were born. She was clearly raised to be a fighter. She was named for the Hindu Goddess of Death. Her mother raised her to embrace Feminism and Black Power and she takes those lessons to heart.
In a strange way, âKaliâ could be an answer to âThe Trouble with Bianca.â Where âBiancaâ was about how a troubled young woman with a difficult background is viewed by the people around her but never gets to speak for herself, âKaliâ is about a troubled young woman with a difficult background who has no trouble speaking or thinking for herself, thank you very much.
Kali was raised to challenge those who would threaten her. When she enters the beach, white beachgoers stare at her with focused suspicion. One could say that her upbringing made her hyper aware and paranoid of her surroundings and perhaps she imagines that others have hostile intent towards her. But she isn't imagining their racist words to describe her or the vulgar harassment that some of the men give her. Above all, she isn't imagining when one of the men rapes her.
Kali was raised to fight and fight she does. She commits extreme violence to defend herself against her rapist. The ending implies that the rapist unleashed Kali the Death Goddess inside Kali the Protagonist. What he leaves behind is a woman who has ancestral rage, an activistâs view of the world, suspicion towards white men, and a weapon that she is prepared to use. It is uncertain whether she will attack to defend others or just commit violence for violenceâs sake. One thing for sure is that she will embrace violence as her answer to any conflict.
âGo Gentle In This Good Morningâ
This is a journal entry of 102 year old Elias Nathan Hollingwood. It recounts his long life and his decision to end it.
Many of these stories are excellent character studies so it is fitting that the final story in this review covers an entire long life.
Elias gives his perspectives of his upbringing in Brooklyn, his military career, his marriage, his children, the changing world, his views, and his grief and losses as he waits to die.
He draws the reader in by his anecdotes such as describing his wife, Clara as a âred haired woman with a librarian's gaze and an Irish lilt.â After she died in 1988, he mourned âshe was my girl, my bonnie lass. She deserved opera and skylights. She died before I could give them to her.â He also has similar affection and melancholy for his and Clara's four children.
While Elias's memories are melancholic and nostalgic, they are also realistic. He acknowledges his previous racist beliefs that he held until he encountered the Tuskegee Airmen and The Navajo Code Talkers during WWII. He admired that courage, devotion, sacrifice and love for a country that didn't always love them back or acted like it didn't.
Eliasâ story is one of love, loss, joy, regret, many experiences, and satisfaction that he lived through it. It's not a situation where one feels angst at his passing but feeling that it was well earned. He made the decision to end it on his own with satisfaction and an almost joyful exuberance about what happens next. He ends his life as a happy and contented man.