Gary's Massive Head Shouting Forever — Part Two
By Kieran McCaffrey
Still full. Her suitcase is gone, but that’s just for the night on the station. Almost certainly. Fajar is fourteen weeks pregnant with their baby. Like everyone else on New Ayr, they have a choice to make—stay or go. The wormhole that serves the moon is shutting down for thirty years for vital maintenance, and they’re going to be cut off. Fajar wants to go. Gary’s determined they should stay, not least because his family’s been here for—say it quietly—four generations. Plus, there’s huge financial rewards for keeping New Ayr going. Big money. Their kid wouldn’t have to worry.
Gary turns the apartment’s electricity off and the head goes away. A-ha! Except no, because without electricity he can’t work, and because his insulin is in the fridge and needs cooling. Fajar’s thought of everything.
He flicks the electricity back on, the head returns, and Gary realises with horror that it’s not a still image. It’s a video clip, massively slowed down, newly reset. Now the eyes are open and a fleck of spittle hovers at knee height, just beside the bin. Gross.
Gary seeks refuge in his office and work but can’t concentrate, can still feel his humongous dome looming, hanging around like a malignant growth. Besides, he’s got friends coming over later. He needs it gone.
Their A-frame ladder isn’t going to be tall enough. Gary knows this even as he’s wrestling with it. He’s seen Fajar change enough bulbs to know how high it reaches. The lights hang down on long wires, and even then Fajar has to stretch. Their ceiling really is stupidly high.
He leans the ladder against the kitchen island, has to enter his own head to do so. It’s crazy in there, everything backwards, a bubble of insane light, with running water inside. Gary tries not to think too deeply about the rummaging he’s doing, avoids reaching for metaphors while he searches out two tea towels and sets them flat at either end of the island. He’s got a stupid plan and he’ll probably die attempting it; no need to scratch the countertop too.
Kieran McCaffrey lives in the west of Scotland and writes stories and music and captions for the telly. His work has appeared in State Of Matter and has been shortlisted for the 2025 Cymera Prize. Find him at kieranm.bsky.social.
Copyright © 2025 Kieran McCaffrey