“Metaforming” (Science Fiction, 1,000 words), one of my Flash stories, dropped in the August issue of Factor Four Magazine.

This is my first appearance in Factor Four, a pro level publication that has free online reading of speculative flash stories. Factor Four has been around for several years, but they took a hiatus during the Covid pandemic and returned to production earlier this year.

WARNING: There are spoilers in this article, so before continuing past this point please take the five or so minutes required to read this short story: Click Here to read “Metaforming” on the Factor Four Magazine website.

Story Origins

This story answers the question: “What do you get when you combine a pandemic, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and Dr. Jean’s Banana Dance?”

For everyone who’s been pondering that question over the years, the answer is provided by this story 😉

Theme

The theme of this story is something like “making the best of a terrible situation.” The story opens with Berty thinking about the relative merits of transforming into a dog, a cat, or a rat. He’s decided that dog would be okay, and cat is acceptable. But he’s dead set against becoming a rat. We quickly find out that this is not merely a daydreamy thought, but a harsh reality in Berty’s world.

As the story progresses, we find that the Moreau Virus is causing older people to turn into one of those three “metaforms.” But as time goes on, younger and younger people are starting to “form.” Berty only has a short time left. The conflict is, he has a much younger sister who will be left alone once he “forms.”

Characters

There are numerous characters referenced (at least in passing) in this story, which is not typical of my flash stories. Normally I’m much more minimalistic, often just one protag and one antag.

There are of course the main characters, Berty and his sister Chrissy. But there are mentions of their mother, father, grandmother, Aunt Terrine, an appearance by Mr. Crenshaw (and mention of his grand daughter), Sylvia McCrary, and soldiers at the relief station.

Although each of these supporting characters are mentioned only briefly, they all have important roles in the structure of the story. The parents, grandparents, and Aunt Terrine all provide crucial hints about how the virus operates, and also help illustrate aspects of Berty and Chrissy’s character. Mr. Crenshaw and his grand daughter provide the key for Berty to figure out how to delay onset of his own “forming.” The soldiers help convey additional worldbuilding information in a seamless way.

The Island of Doctor Moreau

“Moreau Virus” is an obvious reference to the H.G. Wells story “The Island of Doctor Moreau” in which a scientist has found a way to transform animals into people. In this story, it’s more of an anti-Moreau, since people are turning into animals. (In the 1977 movie adaptation starring Marlin Brando, people could also be transformed into animals.)

Dr. Jean’s Banana Dance Song

The story contains numerous references to Dr. Jean’s Banana Dance Song, a song meant for toddlers and young children in which Dr. Jean repeatedly asks her listeners to “form” various fruits and vegetables. (Available on Youtube. But warning: the simple tune is addictive and may haunt your mind.) Berty uses the same expression in his inner thoughts, for example saying things like “Aunt Terrine formed the cat.” Berty also sings this song to Chrissy near the end of the story, as he attempts to bring his mind back into a childlike state, hoping that this will delay his transformation.

The Covid Pandemic

Okay, everyone who reads this is going to see the obvious connection to the Covid pandemic. I’m sure the pandemic to weighed on my mind as I wrote this, but I did not set out to write a pandemic story when I started.

I started with just the line, “Dog is Berty’s first choice, cat a poor second, and anything’s better than rat. Anything.” I don’t really know why I wrote that. I had seen the movie “The Lobster” a week or so before, and I’m sure that had something to do with it. Anyway, from that first line, the story basically wrote itself.

Some people suggested to me that the meaning of the story is that the pandemic causes people to act like (turn into) animals. Well that may be true to some degree, but I didn’t directly have that in mind when writing the story. Not to say that isn’t a reasonable interpretation. The Covid pandemic obviously intensified numerous societal fractures.

Other people suggested that the meaning of the story is, “Excessive worrying changes you negatively. Stop worrying so much, have some fun and live your life. See the world through a child’s eyes.” Again, that’s not something that was front and center in my mind when I wrote it, but it’s a reasonable interpretation. And that is a theme in some of my other stories, so fair enough.

Tense

This story is written in “third person close” tense. That is to say, its written in third person, however, the narrator is clearly speaking as Berty and reporting directly on Berty’s thoughts. One early reviewer who was perhaps not familiar with this mode of writing commented how seamless it felt. He intuitively knew the narrator was Berty, and all the thoughts expressed were Berty’s whether they were attributed to Berty or not. The narrator’s use of slang and poor grammar reinforce that we are listening directly to Berty’s thoughts.

You might ask why I would choose third person close rather than just using first person. The advantage of third person close is that I can describe Berty directly. For example, it’s sometimes hard to work the POV character’s name into the story when writing in first person. Sure, you can start the story like this: “My name is Berty and … etc.” but that’s a little awkward sometimes.

Both third peson close and first person have the effect of making the reader identify directly with Berty. The reader becomes Berty, in effect. For flash fiction, both first person and third person close are often the best choice. For longer works, first person can be problematic if not handled deftly. Third person distant (where the narrator is clearly not the POV character) is useful as well, when you want the reader to remain slightly more distant from the POV character. (For example, if the POV character is an anti-hero, you may not want the reader to closely identify, as that might be disconcerting.)

Ending

What Kind of Ending is This?

Some people see this as a hopeful ending (Berty will be able to act childlike enough to stave off his transformation indefinitely), and some see it as a brutally sad ending (Berty is putting on a brave face but inside he knows it’s totally hopeless).

I’m okay with either interpretation. I do think of it more in one of those two ways than the other, but I’d rather let every reader make up their own mind so I won’t divulge which one I favor.

Character Arc

One of the workshop reviews of an early draft of this story commented that there wasn’t enough of a main character arc. I fixed that in a later draft. However, the character arc is still a bit subtle in this story.

But it’s pretty obvious in this final draft how Berty changed over the course of the story. Just read the first sentence and the last few sentences. Basically, he’s entirely against “forming the rat” at the start, and throughout most of the story. This is because he’s thinking of himself (running through fields as a dog with Sylvia) and he’s thinking as a teenager.

But as he turns toward thinking only of his sister, and tries to think more like a child, he finally accepts that rat is okay too, since he could still help her find food in rat form. Yes, that’s the arc: by the end he accepts the rat form, and accepts that he’ll never end up with Sylvia.

One early reviewer said they really wanted me to show which form Berty eventually took. But that would not really add anything to the story. He’s okay with any form, as long as he can help Chrissy. Therefore the form he eventually takes is irrelevant to the story. (But we can all hope that if he does eventually form, it is the dog.)

What Genre is this Story?

Although I think of it as very soft science fiction, a strong case can be made that the transformation of a human to a rat by viral means is so improbable that this is really fantasy. I’m fine with that way of thinking.

There are viruses in the animal and insect world that cause physical transformations of a less dramatic nature, and some metamorphic processes in the insect world do cause extreme changes to physical structure. So it’s maybe on the fringes of possibility from a science fiction point of view.

Compressed Time

This is not a “real time” story (like some of my other recent flash publications). It takes place over a few hours. It’s typical of flash stories that they take place over a relatively short time frame (though there are exceptions).

Publication Timeline

Here’s the publication timeline for this story. This story had a moderately long journey from draft to publication.

• This story was written in mid September, 2020. After several workshop reviews and a couple of editing passes, it was complete on September 20, 2020.
• Over the next eighteen months the story was rejected by 11 markets, often with positive comments, but never seemed to be quite the “right fit” for the publication. There may have just been far too many pandemic-like stories coming out at this time. The story is also quite odd so I knew from the start it was going to be a long haul to find a fit.
• Submitted to Factor Four on May 15, 2022. Accepted on July 1, 2022. Contract executed on July 4, 2022.
• Published August 1, 2022.

So about 23 months from initial draft to publication. This is about average, maybe a tad on the long side.

Conclusion

This is an oddball story that combined three very different ideas. Always be on the lookout for unusual ways to combine different elements into something new.