"Conversation Piece" by Maria Carvalho

Jolowat dug through the box of half-priced items, pulling out a glass-fronted rectangular object. 

“What’s this?” she asked the Elder running the sale.

“It’s called a cell phone,” he replied. “They were used for communication—I found loads of them when I arrived here with the first settlement group. It hasn’t worked in ages, but would make an interesting conversation piece.”

Jolowat nodded and walked over to pay him, reaching down to pat the tiny-headed human lying at the Elder’s feet. It was hard to believe that these dimwitted animals had once been intelligent enough to use such a device.

Maria Carvalho’s multi-genre work has appeared in a variety of literary magazines, including Roi Fainéant Press, MetaStellar, Free Flash Fiction, Twin Pies Literary, 101 Words, Literary Revelations, and All Your Stories. Her short stories have been published in a smorgasbord of anthologies, including several titles in the Owl Hollow Press Anthology Series, and her poetry appears in several best-selling books from Literary Revelations. Her popular children's book Hamster in Space! was praised by Kirkus Indie Reviews for its "sharp understanding of kids' wacky sense of humor." Find her on Bluesky: @immcarvalho.bsky.social and Twitter: @ImMCarvalho.