Westside Fairytales

Have you ever felt trapped, even when, technically, you were free as a bird? Today we’ll hear the story of a man trapped by his life decisions, a man who smiles at everybody through bars only he can see. But as he becomes trapped in a monolithic warehouse with something not of this world, he finds the bars he thought were holding him weren’t as solid as they seemed.

Today’s story is a sort of sci-fi western, set at the edge of space in a time unknown. Our small cast of protagonists are escorting a sick man to the far edge of the frontier, ostensibly to die. It’s as dangerous a trip as any, and as our protagonists walk further into the wild of that unknown planet, it becomes clear that not all of them will return from their journey alive.

This episode is the second half of Gourmand Gourmet, in which David has found he can no longer keep any traditional food down after emergency brain surgery. After slitting the throat of a lamb during a Central Park nativity scene, he discovers the one thing he can eat is human flesh. With that knowledge in hand, he must decide whether it's better to starve to death ... or to go hunting.

A well-respected food critic finds he's no longer able to enjoy food after emergency surgery to remove tumors from his brain. Not only is he unable to enjoy food, but it tastes utterly foul to him. As his career, relationship, and dignity are put on the line, he puts his hope in curing himself by finding something to eat that doesn't come up right after he chews, but he soon finds the only item on the menu is the most taboo of foods.

A disgraced former professor is forced to take a job as a night watchman after his career and life fall apart. After spending some time alone in the dark on his night patrols, he finds his new station in life is far from the worst of his worries.

To recap part one of this week's story, a mentally disadvantaged inmate named Zeke is being forced to make Glory State Penitentiary’s first electric chair. The first inmate scheduled to use that chair, a notorious criminal named Cunny Marco, has been threatening Zeke, hoping that him not finishing the chair means his execution will be stayed indefinitely.

What would you do if somebody gave you the choice of dying now, or killing people just to die a bit later? In this week's story, a mentally-disabled savant at a mid-20th-century West Virginia prison is faced with that same decision when the warden gives him a simple task: Build the prison's new electric chair. This story is long enough that we're going to be splitting it into two parts.

An odd book leaves a trail of bloodshed through the ages. As its readers drop dead one by one, an insidious purpose is revealed.

An man discusses his odd hobby of collecting many copies of the same mundane book.

Have you ever stood at the edge of a tall building or ledge and just had that urge to jump? In this first episode of the Westside Fairytales podcast, we follow a young woman who travels into the woods and finds it hard to leave.