The Cube Game

by Emily Seife

• Word count: 1646

• Page count: 3

The Cube Game is a very short science fiction story written by a twelve year old girl: Emily Seife. An excellent short story for kids and adults, this piece is about a game that is played by the children of Rijuan - an experimental environment just outside of Nypron’s third moon. The cube game was created to teach the kids to consider their every movement in the low oxygen atmosphere where they live.

But it is about more than just the game the children play, it is the story of one child in particular and the problems she has living in Rijuan and interacting with the other kids. This truly is an inspirational short story appropriate for all ages.

The colorful cube made quiet music with a steady beat while moving around the tan grid. The children stood around the edges of the grid with the lightprongs in their hands. The lightprongs were about half a foot long and were made of a dull black metal. They were cool in the children’s warm hands. Each prong was shaped like a pole, except that near the bottom was a soft rubber grip. All the grips were different. They were made individually and everyone’s was made to fit his or her hand. The lightprongs had a reddish circle on the top and the circle made a quiet whisper when the lightprongs were moved.

The Cube Game originally appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of Stone Soup - the magazine made up entirely of creative works by children.

You can read The Cube Game online for free at Stories By The People.

(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on BestScienceFictionStories.com on Jan 8th, 2008.)