You are listening to a Clarksworld magazine podcast with your host and narrator, Kate Baker.

Greetings, Clarksworld citizens. I hope this podcast finds you well.

This is our second story for the month of August 2021.

What have you been doing with your summer? Have you been getting outside? Have you been listening to

these stories as you garden? Have you been getting back to life? Let me know. Send me an email

at Kate at Clarksworldmagazine.com. Let's Clark with an E. We're always interested in how you listen

and always thank you for your support, whether you visit us on patreon.com-thwords-clarksworld-clarksworld-citizens.com

or you buy a subscription via Amazon or the many other ways we are available. Thank you for your

monetary support. We can't do this without you, each and every penny counts.

So our second story is titled A Thousand Tiny Gods.

This by Nadia Afifi is a science fiction author. Her debut novel The Sonscient was lauded by

publishers weekly as a staggering and unputdownable. Her short fiction has appeared in the magazine

of fantasy and science fiction and abyss and apex. Nadia grew up in the Middle East,

but currently calls Denver Colorado home. When she isn't writing, she spends her time practicing

and falling off the Lyra and working on the most challenging jigsaw puzzles she can find.

You can find more at Nadiaafifi.com. So my dear listener, I hope you can sit back, relax,

and let me tell you a story.

The minister's wife arrives at the Bahrain Ministry of Nanotechnology in a black limousine with

dark tinted windows. She normally shoes the hijab, but today she's wrapped in a black abaya

with full face covering a useful method of concealing her identity without drawing attention from

those who would question her presence here of all places. Under her veil, her head turns left and

right, scanning her surroundings before she gathers her skirts and strolls into the building.

...