Ficly

Tharsianzi Wine Jelly

I waited for her to turn the vacuum off. “Jules, what’s this?” I held out a small jar.

She looked at the jar. “It’s blue.” She smiled sarcastically.

“Thanks. It’s labeled ‘Tharsianzi Wine Jelly’. What’s a tharsianzi?”

“No idea. It’s a wine jelly, so a fruit of some kind?”

“You didn’t buy it?”

“Sorry, Tim. I don’t know anything about it.” She started the vacuum again.

It was puzzling. The label identified the maker: the Acidalia Lakes Winery. I looked at the ingredient list: sugar, tharsianzi wine, cydeño, lemon juice. The cydeño was probably the deep purple flakes suspended in the pale blue jelly.

I sat down at the computer in the den, and googled for “tharsianzi,” “cydeño,” and “Acidalia Lakes Winery.” I got no relevant hits. There was an Acidalia, New York, but no wineries near there.

There was also an Acidalia Planitia on Mars. I flipped to its Wikipedia page. Two names popped out immediately: Tharsis and Cydonia. A chill went up my spine and I began to hope that I was the victim of a hoax.

View this story's 2 comments.