Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 9, for Wednesday the ninth of October 2024.

Set Fair

by Elizabeth Guilt

Ella turned her back.

"I'm not a child any more. I'm not stupid!"

Steve laid gentle hands on her six-year-old shoulders. "I know, love."

He stared at the horizon. In the milky light from the silica skymesh, the

podhouses soon shimmered into misty distance.

"It's true, though."

"It's not true! How would it get to the hydroponics?"

Ella kicked the polymer ducting, hard enough that the vibrations risked tripping alarms at the recyc. plant.

"Don't do that, Ella."

He didn't blame her. Even he struggled to believe that, when he was her age, water had sometimes fallen from the sky.