Short Fiction Friday: Professor Incognito Apologizes

Professor Incognito Apologizes by Austin Grossman

This story first appeared in The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams and was reprinted over at Tor.com

In the last few Short Fiction Friday features I actually read quite heavy stuff and I was in the mood for something funny. While I was searching for such a story I came across Professor Incognito Apologizes by Austin Grossman. Being a scientist myself my curiosity was directly piqued.

Now to begin, Professor Incognito Apologizes follow a different type of narration. The premise of the story is about how the wife, Suzanne, of Professor Incognito discovers the secret hideout of her husband. Professor Incognito hid his secret base in their basement with a passage through their cupboard door. Now that he has been discovered, Incognito makes sure that Suzanne is unable to retell the tale. But before she can utter her last words or take in her last breath, Incognito spill the beans on some things that happened during their relation. And just because she of course deserves and answer. The narration is based more on an interview/ Q&A based only that Incognito is both the Q and the A in this case.

The topics that he discusses are from an holographic projection. The events told are all related to things where Incognito acted weird. They vary from why it happened to some of the dates they went on to fights and the break up they had right down to the plans that he has with the fate of the world. Also Incognito reveals that he knew his wife was different and actually does still care about her to a certain degree and perhaps shares his trump card with the Martians and his plans. And that she can if she is interested.. The ending of the story is left purposefully open, allowing you as a reader to think has it happened or not.

There is both a certain degree of seriousness as well as a lot of humor to the story. The idea behind the story alone is cool and Austin Grossman cleverly executes it. I just checked the Goodreads profile of Austin and he has written more superhero fiction, I will be sure to check that out!

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