“Dad Died on Discord” is out as a flash piece in Lightspeed Magazine. It’s also on Lightspeed’s podcast, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki. Here’s a snippet:

When we moved Dad to the care facility, his only complaint was the wifi. “Laggy,” he called it when he was having a good day. “Fucking piece of shit,” he called it the rest of the time.

At first I was relieved. I’d been worried that he’d bristle at the cramped room, like a zoo animal pacing its enclosure in a sad documentary. But he never said a word about the bedsit quarters or the unfamiliar, ever-churning staff. He didn’t mind the food, which was prescription and bland, delivered from the AllMart pharmacy (though once management caught him drone-dashing tacos in through the open window). He never complained, as long as the wifi was working and he could sit up gaming in his railed hospital bed. When the wifi was down, however, he’d spit and rage, sulk and mutter, throw his food on the floor and his silverware at the nurses. Civil disobedience tactics from the bad old days.

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