Hello and welcome to the Travelcast, episode 480. The Travel Cast is an audio fiction

magazine that brings strange stories by strange authors to strange listeners such as yourself. I'm your host, Norm Sherman.

Wild Weird West event continues this week folks. I'm excited to bring you this

week's story, a full cast production of an original story sent into us by Arthur H. Manners.

But first, I mentioned last episode we'd be pairing our weird West event story selections

with winners from our 100-word Drabble Quick Draw contest, and I'm much obliged do so partner.

So buckle up buttercup because there's a new hundred word story winner in town and its name is

In the crevice of his pasture, my master found his body parts.

By Aikis Llanartis, here goes.

Rain patters my copper back and forms a puddle reflecting my rusty limbs which creak as I dig with metal hands.

The pit deepens and I toss X-Master's corpse within.

I open the coffin he'd unearthed, the one I hid in the crevice of his pasture,

the one where I'd stashed mechanical parts clad in human skin. They took ten years to build.

I unscrew my limbs, screw new ones in.

Now I'm no robot, but an Android and sheriff's skin.

In the puddle, I witness my new reflection.

My human face, X Masters, looks back at me and grins. I feel like that sometimes, a robot once enslaved by the guy that looks like me whose skin I know

wear and maybe I just forgot, you know, like on purpose.

And then the coffee usually kicks in, thank God.

But even then sometimes, even then, because maybe the coffee's not strong enough, or it's just that early in the morning,

I still find myself continuing that train of thought.

You know, because I mean, wouldn't you want to forget?

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