"The Last Lucid Day" by Dominique Dickey

It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton

Fiction

4.9 • 664 Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"The Last Lucid Day" by Dominique Dickey, narrated by Wil This week's story hits extremely close to home for me. It's about a son,and the father who let him down. It's about the desperate search for aconnection, before The Last Lucid Day. Original Publication Credit: The story was simultaneously published by Lightspeed and io9; it's also been reprinted in The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Vol. 1, edited by Michael Kelly. To learn more about the author, please visit: https://dominiquedickey.com/ It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You didn't start a business just to keep the lights on.
0:02.8	You're here to sell more today than yesterday.
0:05.8	You're here to win.
0:08.5	Lucky for you, Shopify built the best converting checkout on the planet.
0:12.7	Like the just one tapping, ridiculously fast acting, sky high sales stacking, championed
0:18.6	checkouts.
0:19.5	That's the good stuff right there.
0:21.6	So if your business is in it to win it, win with Shopify.
0:25.6	Start your free trial today at shopify. Hi, everybody. It's Will. I am so glad you're here because it's story time. This week's story
1:01.4	hits so close to home for me. It's about a son and the father who let him down. It is about their
1:10.8	desperate search for some connection
1:13.5	before the last lucid day.
1:25.6	The Last Lucid Day by Dominique Dickie, published in Lightspeed Magazine,
1:31.6	Issue 170, July 24.
1:36.5	You're asleep in dreams of your father holding your head underwater,
1:40.8	so the call from Magnolia-assisted Living goes to voicemail.
1:44.9	I didn't raise a son of mind to count on his fingers,' your father says in the dream,
1:49.5	"'because, ah, yes, it's all of your worst moments rolled into a single nightmare.
1:56.8	"'You hear the beeping of your alarm, and you know you're dreaming,
2:00.0	"'but you can't wake up any more than you can pull yourself free of your father's hands.
2:05.1	He holds you down and tells you to count the seconds.
2:09.6	Show him how long you can hold your breath.
	...

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