Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration by Ryan Cole (audio)

·34 min·3 clips

Verity crawls through dark tunnels, her failing lung filter beeping warnings as she searches for anything to survive in a collapsing underground colony.

The episode opens with host Kate Baker introducing the story and author Ryan Cole, a speculative fiction writer and Writers of the Future winner. The narrative follows Verity, a scavenger in an underground colony where polluted air requires everyone to wear implanted 'lungs' with filters. Her brother Axel is imprisoned in a quarantine cell because his lung failed. Verity's own lung is deteriorating, beeping warnings about particulate density. Her friend Widget reveals a deal: an old woman named Miss Ratchet will give her lung upon death in exchange for retrieving a macaroni artwork made by her granddaughter. Verity and Widget ascend through pump shafts and tunnels, risking quakes and collapses. During a collapse, Verity falls and is separated from Widget, navigating alone with her lung failing. She finds the artwork, a pasta-drawn picture of a woman and girl under a yellow sun, representing lost innocence. Her lung then issues a toxic warning, and she rips off her mask, nearly suffocating. Widget rescues her by sharing his lung. Back in the colony, Widget reveals Miss Ratchet died and gave them the lung. Verity faces a choice: use the lung for herself or give it to Axel. She chooses Axel, handing him the lung through the quarantine cell glass. Axel escapes into the tunnels, while Verity remains, sharing Widget's lung and tracing hearts on the glass with Axel. The story ends with Verity clinging to the good in the world. Baker concludes by inviting listener feedback and teasing more April stories.

As heard by us

Dust, collapse, and Axel's heart traced across glass give this Clarkesworld story its sharpest force.

Ryan Cole's "Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration" starts in Kate Baker's Clarkesworld frame before shifting into a shaft where Verity and Widget contend with dust, quakes, and a ladder that will not stay put.

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Why you'd press play

You want a tunnel collapse, a weak voice through rock, and a goodbye traced on glass and held there.

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