Bewildering Stories introduces and welcomes...

Sylvia Worden

Sylvia is a native of California and a world traveler. She has retired from a career in higher education and is now lives in the Sacramento area while fulfilling an early ambition to write about adventure and travel. Sylvia uses the pen name T. L. Shane for her “weirder science fiction and fantasy stories.”

“The Friend in the Water” introduces a mother, Charlotte, who follows her husband’s penchant for traveling to far-away places while tending to two children: Marella, age 5, and Jonah, who is less than 2 years old. The problem is Marella’s fixation on a Spanish-speaking “friend,” whose name Marella says is “Óscar.” No one else can see or talk to this friend, mainly because he seems to exist only in sea water. Years later, Marella still babbles to her friend in her own, invented language and shows no interest in learning more Spanish than she knew at age 5. Has Marella’s mysterious friend brought her a deficiency or has Marella implicitly recognized one of her own?

Sylvia Worden’s bio sketch can be found here.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, Sylvia. We’re glad to have you with us.