THE WET BREATH OF EIRE by
PLOT SYNOPSIS:
In the near future, on the hottest summer day on record, an elderly nun faints on a city sidewalk and is rushed to the nearest hospital. She is diagnosed with heatstroke and left lying unconscious in a private room where a dense cloud has formed above her head. The nun is identified as Sister Angelica Boyle, a popular choirmaster and the subject of a city wide search. When she awakens,...
In the near future, on the hottest summer day on record, an elderly nun faints on a city sidewalk and is rushed to the nearest hospital. She is diagnosed with heatstroke and left lying unconscious in a private room where a dense cloud has formed above her head. The nun is identified as Sister Angelica Boyle, a popular choirmaster and the subject of a city wide search. When she awakens,...
PLOT SYNOPSIS:
In the near future, on the hottest summer day on record, an elderly nun faints on a city sidewalk and is rushed to the nearest hospital. She is diagnosed with heatstroke and left lying unconscious in a private room where a dense cloud has formed above her head. The nun is identified as Sister Angelica Boyle, a popular choirmaster and the subject of a city wide search. When she awakens, the Sister is surrounded by doctors, a young woman volunteer, and a medical scribe named Jules. She claims the cloud is a gift from Saint Swithun, patron saint of weather, in response to her fervent prayers. Later, when the sister
is left alone, she inadvertently swallows the cloud, then coughs it up in the form of a crystal sphere capable of generating more clouds. Jules offers the use of his yacht to transport
the doctors, the volunteer, and the Sister to the ocean where the sphere produces a funnel shaped fog that skims the sea, leaving a wake in which a stranger is spied clinging to
a plank. The rescued stranger speaks in watery trills and appears to be part male, part female, with gills, webbed feet, and a barnacled body. The stranger’s presence unsettles
the passengers, testing their capacity for empathy until boundaries of civility are crossed,
and an ensuing fight leads to tragedy. The story of the voyage is told by Jules who is testifying before an audience of jurors at a coroner’s inquest. Jules is also writing a novel
based on the voyage and explains that his plot, like the cloud, is proving problematic:
a metaphysical mystery that may never be resolved.
In the near future, on the hottest summer day on record, an elderly nun faints on a city sidewalk and is rushed to the nearest hospital. She is diagnosed with heatstroke and left lying unconscious in a private room where a dense cloud has formed above her head. The nun is identified as Sister Angelica Boyle, a popular choirmaster and the subject of a city wide search. When she awakens, the Sister is surrounded by doctors, a young woman volunteer, and a medical scribe named Jules. She claims the cloud is a gift from Saint Swithun, patron saint of weather, in response to her fervent prayers. Later, when the sister
is left alone, she inadvertently swallows the cloud, then coughs it up in the form of a crystal sphere capable of generating more clouds. Jules offers the use of his yacht to transport
the doctors, the volunteer, and the Sister to the ocean where the sphere produces a funnel shaped fog that skims the sea, leaving a wake in which a stranger is spied clinging to
a plank. The rescued stranger speaks in watery trills and appears to be part male, part female, with gills, webbed feet, and a barnacled body. The stranger’s presence unsettles
the passengers, testing their capacity for empathy until boundaries of civility are crossed,
and an ensuing fight leads to tragedy. The story of the voyage is told by Jules who is testifying before an audience of jurors at a coroner’s inquest. Jules is also writing a novel
based on the voyage and explains that his plot, like the cloud, is proving problematic:
a metaphysical mystery that may never be resolved.