Good Job, Robin: JoeAnn Hart’s short story about love, earth, and eating crickets.

This story is part of Future Tense Fiction, a monthly series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives. Ahimsa, when she’s not promoting the abolition of humans, talks about having children, “but only if the earth wants them.” I finish scanning, then run the tray through the flash unit, zapping the crickets lifeless. The farm clock chimes and Ahimsa motions with her carrier to say “let’s go.” We have one last chore and it’s the best. “If you say ‘good job,’ I’m going to scream,” says Ahimsa, but she says it with half a smile. “I’ll bet he’d love to see a giraffe, if we can bring them back.” She considers Purplish munching on a leaf still attached to a plant and does not answer one way or another.