Adventitious, February 2026
This quietly moving novelette is narrated by Red, a 1972 Mustang who is, in fact, a reincarnated human soul. Red has no clear memory of his previous life, only fragmentary sensations — a blinding light, a scream, the smell of diesel — before waking into his new existence as a used car, newly purchased by a woman named Shirley, to the unwelcome soundtrack of disco music.
Red’s afterlife truly begins when he meets Shirley’s four-year-old daughter, Allison, who promptly gets sick in his back seat and later gives him his name. As the years pass through the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Red discovers he has limited but meaningful agency — he can change radio stations, roll up windows, and even subtly control his speed to keep passengers safe. Music becomes the connective tissue of the story, with Allie and her best friend Sam turning their drives into joyful “caraoke” sessions, belting out everything from Aerosmith to Tears for Fears.
Red watches Allie grow up with deep tenderness. He witnesses her first romance with a shy classmate named Jesse, who helps restore Red in shop class before the two teenagers share a tender, trust-filled night at Allie’s favorite overlook. He is present when Sam comes out as gay, and Allie wraps him in unconditional love. He keeps drunk friends from driving and, in one harrowing scene, uses every ounce of his ability — honking, flooding the interior with light, blasting LL Cool J at full volume — to stop a man from assaulting a drugged Allison in his back seat.
Through it all, Red reflects on connection and purpose. He wonders whether he had friendships or soulmates in his previous life, and concludes that some bonds — like Allie and Sam’s, or Allie and Jesse’s, who reunite years later as adults — are simply unbreakable. He watches Allie find her calling as a photographer, move into a place with Sam, and build a full, meaningful life.
The story reaches its devastating and luminous conclusion during a rainstorm. A car of inexperienced young drivers spins out across the center line. Red, seeing no way to save both the oncoming passengers and Allison, makes an agonizing choice — he swerves to spare the other car, but sends himself and Allie tumbling. In the aftermath, Red leaves his wrecked body in human form, crouches beside Allison, and takes her hand. She recognizes him immediately. Together, they see the light, and Allie — ever her mother’s daughter — decides it’s time to go. They walk toward it along the yellow center line, with the overturned Mustang’s radio still playing behind them, and this time, Red finally sings along.
P.A. Cornell is an award-winning Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer, and the first Chilean author to be nominated for a Nebula. Her short fiction has appeared in over sixty magazines and anthologies, including four “Best of” anthologies.