Testimony is a funny story. Not funny funny, no, not much humor to it at all. Funny in that it came into being in a different way than most of my previous stories. I had an idea, and I had things I wanted to try, and it was a little like attempting a crossword puzzle where the clues were given by charades. Which, incidentally, might be fun. I may need to add that to my list of games for imaginary parties I might hold.

Anyway, interesting facts about Testimony. I have, at various points in my life, thought a lot about the space between the data we can collect in medicine and our understanding of it. There is a gap, and it is huge, and you don’t necessarily think about it until you find yourself floundering there, trying to get to one side or the other. In some ways, this story is merely an exploration of an extreme example.

For me, it’s also about being friends, though, and losing friends, and being a child, and about growing up and learning to say goodbye. There are pieces of all of us that are frozen. What does it take to thaw them out?

I’m also indebted to my daughter for her unceasing fascination with frogs, and wood frogs in particular. I promise I’ll never freeze you, dear one, but I will pilfer your research freely.

You can find Testimony here, along with an issue’s worth of flash fiction and the start of a new serial, and fabulous artwork by Galen Dara. Please consider supporting Fireside in their entirely laudable goals of publishing great fiction and paying writers well.