Whatnot Wednesday Short Story

Posted on by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Eyeballs reading book on train by Teagan via Night Cafe
by Teagan via Night Cafe

It’s been a long time since I did a short story, so let’s get right to it.

The Book Found on the Subway

There was nothing particularly momentous about the moment that changed my life.  It was an accidental discovery, though an incredible one — an invasion.  Not one country invading another.  It was aliens, as in lifeforms from another planet.

I admit that I haven’t done anything about it.  At least not yet.  What could I do?  I called the police and they only asked me endless questions meant to establish my mental competence.  I called the government, but they were all out raiding places with the other kind of aliens.

At any rate, it seems like the truth is out there now.  I wasn’t the first one to discover it.  For all I know, it might even be under control.  Anyhow, for me, it started when I was sitting in my favorite chair, idly paging through an old paperback that somebody left on the train.  That’s when I came across a note in the margin of a page that was my first clue.  For a moment I didn’t react.  It took a little while for the full impact to sink in through my typically American denial.  Once I understood, it seemed weird that I hadn’t noticed it immediately.

The note was obviously about beings that were other than human and they were not indigenous to Earth.  The species had incredible properties.  Yet they were able to, and usually did, masquerade as ordinary humans.

 However, I figured out a few things that let me see their disguise.  The combination of the paperback and the hand written notes made it all clear.  It was obvious that the author knew everything, as did the note writer.  They not only knew everything — they sounded like it was all perfectly normal!

book on a subway seat by Teagan via Night Cafe

I still shudder when I think about the first line that tipped me off.  It said, “… her eyes gradually slid around the room…”

A cold shiver went down my spine as I tried to imagine those disembodied eyes.  What kind of momentum let them travel?  Did they glide similar to a hang glider?  Did they have little suckers somewhere like the tentacles of an octopus?  That part of the book held no explanation.  The book read as if the eyes were able to move right through the air, not necessarily touching the surface.  It sounded like they could move around really fast too.

Perhaps the most amazing thing was that no one in the story was surprised.  That was the main tip-off for me.  How could they not be amazed?  The whole thing was utterly outrageous.  As I read on, the matter expanded.  The book described how “her eyes moved from person to person…”

There was no other explanation.  It was obvious that that pair of eyes had the ability to detach themselves from the rest of the woman.  They could go out on their own.  My heart hammered and my breath labored.  I gasped for air, forcing it into my lungs. 

I had stumbled on an accidental mention of an unfamiliar race.  It was also obviously extraterrestrial.  However, to the characters in the book, it was perfectly natural…  The only conclusion at which I could arrive was that suggested they belonged to an alien species.

What about the paperback writer?  A slow suspicion kindled to burn in my mind.  I felt the author was taking it all rather a little too easily.  By all appearances, he felt all the strangeness and secrecy was a run of the mill thing.  He made absolutely no attempt to conceal this knowledge.

I held my breath as I continued reading the story.

“Then her eyes fastened on Maurice…”

At least Maurice had the dignity to feel indignant.  He was described as blushing and knitting his brows angrily.  When I read that, I heaved a sigh of relief.  

Thank God, not all of those people are aliens! I thought.

But then I read further.

“Her eyes calmly, lazily examined every inch of Maurice.”

OMG!  I was horrified.  However, in the next paragraph, Maurice turned and stomped away, putting a stop to the roving of the disembodied eyes.

I flopped back against my chair and panted with horror.  My husband and kids regarded me in what amounted to astonishment for them — meaning they gave me a curious glance and then went back to their phones.

Middle aged woman with book in old chair

“What’s the matter, hon?” asked my husband.

How could I possibly give him an honest answer.  That kind of knowledge was too much for the ordinary sensible man like him.  I knew that I had to keep it to myself.

“Uh, nothing, babe.  Just a touch of gas,” I choked out the reply.

Then I jumped up, clutching the book to my chest, and hurried upstairs to the attic room where I kept reading despite the lack of heat there.

Oh, yes, there was more.  Trembling, I read the revelations of the next paragraph.

“She put her arm around Maurice’s waist.  However, he asked her to remove her arm.  Smiling, she immediately did so.”

Heaving, I grabbed the wastebasket, but I managed not to throw up.  The book didn’t say what was done with the arm after the woman removed it.  

Did they prop it in the corner?  Maybe one of them threw it into a dumpster.  At that point, I didn’t really care.  At any rate, the full meaning was right there staring me in the face.

It was an alien race that was capable of removing parts of their bodies whenever they felt like it…  Any parts, eyes, arms, who could say what else.  Moreover, they were unconcerned, even casual about doing it.

I had a pretty good knowledge of biology, and at that point it came in handy.  Obviously, their species had to be simple beings.  They must be some kind of primitive single-celled creatures.  I considered that they might be like starfish.  You know, starfish can do the same thing.

I kept reading and came to the most incredible revelation so far.  Amazingly, the author stated it with no emotion whatsoever.

“After the concert we split up.  Part of us went to the bar next door, and part went across the street to a bookstore.”

iphotoklick Pixabay
iphotoklick at Pixabay

Ah ha!  Well, that was obviously some kind of fission.  A single alien creature that could split itself in half and form two distinct creatures.  I figured that each lower half went to the bookstore, since it was farther away and they were more mobile.  The upper halves probably went to the bookstore.  I trembled as I kept reading.

Wow! I’ve stumbled onto the greatest secret of the century! I thought, and then the next chapter had me close to fainting.

“There’s no doubt about it.  Poor old Homer has lost his head again.  And Jim, well, Jim says he hasn’t got any guts.”

However, it seemed like Homer did about as well as the next person.  Although the next person was every bit as strange.  The book described him as having “absolutely no brains at all.”

Then to my dismay I found out about Maurice.  I thought he was the only normal person, but he reveals himself as also being an alien like the rest of them.

“Maurice had willingly given his heart to the woman.”

The book didn’t explain where the woman put the heart or what was done with it.  At that point I didn’t care anymore.  It was all just too much!  Besides, it was apparent that Maurice had gone right on living without his heart, just like all the others in the book had after doing away with their various body parts.  And they did it all without a second thought.

I flinched when I saw that the horrors for Maurice were not yet finished.

“Then, hesitantly, Maurice gave her his hand…”

In a cold sweat, I grabbed the wastebasket again.  It was a good thing that I didn’t eat my dinner.  Now the awful woman had his hand and his heart too.  I shuddered to think what she’d done with them, by then.  Oh, but she wasn’t done.

“Smiling, she took his arm.”

Poor Maurice had been giving himself piece by piece, but the monster wasn’t content to wait.  No, she had to start taking him apart on her own!

Furious, I slammed the book down on the table.  However, I couldn’t help myself.  I was invested in my discovery of these alien creatures.  I knew there was more about those careless pieces of anatomy that had put me on the track of this discovery.  Maybe it would help me think of something I could do to ward off the impending invasion.

“Maurice’s eyes followed her all the way to the end of the road and to the subway station…”

The subway, they must mean to use the subway to spread their invasion.  That’s why the book had been left there.  But there was nothing I could do!  I rushed downstairs from the attic to the warm house, as if the nightmarish eyeballs were following me.  My husband and the kids were in the kitchen playing Jenga.  With my teeth chattering and feeling feverish, I joined them and played like a maniac.

I couldn’t take any more of the discoveries I had made.  If there was more in the book, I couldn’t read it.  Alright aliens, go ahead and invade the Earth with your eyeballs running around everywhere.  I’m not having anything to do with it.

Nope.  I can’t give it another brain cell, and I don’t have any stomach for it.

The end.

This is a reimagining of a public domain short story I once read by Philip K. Dick.  I’m not sure what the name of it was.  It’s meant to be a lighthearted reminder that our words might not always mean the same thing to another person — that goes for verbal communications as well as writing.    Thanks for joining me for this bit of silliness.  Friendly comments are welcome.  Hugs!

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Of course, here’s the obligatory shameless self-promotion.

Thistledown – Midsummer Bedlam

Kindle:  relinks.me/B082RFN9GF

Paperback:  relinks.me/1675233632

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This is a work of fiction.  Characters, names, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2025 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved. 

No part of this work may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

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63 thoughts on “Whatnot Wednesday Short Story”

  7. Teagan, I really appreciate that you introduced me to Philip K. Dick — I had never heard of him before. After reading your post, I looked him up and was fascinated to learn more. What an extraordinary writer, so deeply reflective about reality and identity. I also discovered that his imagination influenced many films I know well, like Blade Runner (from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Minority Report, Total Recall, and The Adjustment Bureau. It feels like he shaped so much of the way we think about science fiction today. Thank you for opening this door for me! You had a great reimagining of his book. Sending hugs on speedy wings to you and the Scoobies!!!

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    1. Oh. That surprised me, Rebecca (that you weren’t familiar with his work). I don’t know whether or not he is credited as such, but I agree that he is a major influence on modern science fiction. I’ve never read the book version, but decades later, Blade Runner remains my favorite sci-fi film. The details of it are just so incredibly well crafted. And of course there’s Harrison Ford. 🙂 Purrs from the Scoobies. Hugs winging back to you.

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  12. I love stories that start on trains – I was reminded of Invasion of the Body Snatchers – knowing a secret but not really knowing what it is. No where to hide. That kind of thing. Nice timing and pacing in this piece!

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  24. I love this, Teagan! It’s a treat for readers and writers alike! I must confess there are some expressions that have become very common everywhere that irritate me, because they have nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word, but… You’ve done a great job, and have reminded me of a novel I was reading once where a character was “eating an apple, with both hands in her pockets”. I kept trying to imagine how anybody would actually manage to do that, unless they had three arms! Congratulations, Teagan. Big hugs and love to the Scoobies!

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