Hello and welcome to the Drapylcast, episode 391. The Drapylcast is a weekly audio fiction magazine that brings strange stories by strange authors to strange listeners, such as yourself.

I'm your host, Norm Sherman.

So I know we did a dog story last week, but, well, this story will seem like it's about dogs but it's it's not it's

about well it's a gosh darned travelcast or if you've ever heard one that's for sure

we bring you day of the Dog by

Alia Whitely. Alia lives in Sussex in the UK. Her stories have appeared in

Strange Horizons, Interzone, Black Static, the Drabble Cast, and in many other places.

Her 2014 horror novella, The Beauty, was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Awards

and also made the James Tiptree Jr. recommended reading list.

Her latest fantasy novel, Scane Island, is currently available from Doghorn Publishing.

So without further ado, we bring you Day of the Dog by A Leah Whiteley. The afternoon the mayor plugged in the world's largest air freshener, I was in a bar with Petey drinking orbitals.

An orbital is a wheat beer with a dash of black currant. It's a slow drink.

It gives the world a sepia tint, like everything that's happening actually happened long ago,

back in the good old days before everything got so complicated.

I was enjoying that sepia feeling, and Peety was talking about the time he ate a slug as a bet when the bar man

shushed him and turned up the volume on the television which was on one of those metal arms

that juts out of the wall high up next to the dusty bottles of champagne and tin plates that always seem to, you know, end up on the top shelves of bars.

The screen showed the mayor, standing next to a plinth, and on it was one big red button a bit like you

might get on a tacky quiz show the camera pulled back and showed the crowd.

I think everyone in town is there the crowd.

I think everyone in town is there except for us, I said, and the barman shushed us again. The very first blanket coverage of air freshener to ever stretch across an entire town, making

this a very proud moment for me, for you, and for every single one of us, a free, clean

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