Hi there, this is Jonathan Mitchell.

We were planning to have a brand new story for you today,

but I was sick last week and needed to take a few days off,

which slowed things down a bit.

I'm feeling better now, but we're going to delay this week's episode until next Thursday.

It's going to be a new story by Mac Rogers called Garden of Evan,

and it's about a compost heap that develops a mind of its own.

Here's a short preview.

When I was a kid, taking out the compost was my least favorite chore.

I thought I'd put it behind me for life until six months ago,

when my wife Harlow informed me that we were to become

a composting household. So now here I was cleaning up after her hobby. She didn't have to make

dinner. I was happy to DoorDash. Except she did make dinner after working a full day.

And I ate it.

The worst was prying the lid off the bin.

Some of the compost gunk would always...

Ugh.

And then you're staring down as this wet abyss.

Everything from last week is liquefying now.

Sometimes you see maggots.

You always see flies.

And you can never get those last few peals out of the bucket.

...