Author
M. Bennardo
Requiem in the Key of Bradbury
First of all. Don't forget. You got to grow up here. No other kids can say that. And even when the others come later. You'll still be the first. Tommy and Jill. You were too young. But Eddie. I think you might remember. How excited you all were when we first came here. After…
A Seven Years' Death Touch
When sleep came He was sure (and he was not sure) That all of this had happened in a dream within a dream within a dream And in the first dream: He lay under a cherry tree, in a forest of cherry trees. He lay under an apple tree, in a forest of apple trees. He lay under a peach…
The Highwayman Come Riding
Great-great-grandmother is receiving her doctorate in Japanese literature. Great-great-granddaughter is renewing her marriage to Marjaana Leskinen. Sister is working as a sewage engineer in Buenos Aires now. Great-aunt is vacationing in Manila. Some woman whose name I don't even…
Survivors
Nobody ever asked me the secret to survival. You didn't ask either, but I'll tell you anyway. It's cowardice, O-hana, so that's how we'll survive. You and I and all the others in our cave--with a million tiny acts of cowardice. I didn't start out as Japanese. I'm still not sure…
Starcrossed
yAs she crossed the caf� for the thousandth time that shift, Juliet suddenly caught sight of the man at the corner table, and the plate of beignets in her hand almost dropped to the floor. Avalanches of precious war-rationed powdered sugar tumbled down the mounds of the fried…
I Heard You Got a Cat, I Heard You Named Him Charles
I heard you got a cat. I heard you named him Charles. I guess you didn't know that I do cats too? I played all those games you wanted, all those black-blond-red-brown-bald-headed strangers. But you never said you wanted a cat. I could have done that too. I told you that you'd…
Final Corrections, Pittsburgh Times-Dispatch
In several items yesterday, the Visitor was variously described as having six legs, eight legs, or "an unholy agglomeration of writhing, thrashing appendages, unable to be counted." The correct number of legs is eight. In our cover story, it was reported that electronics in the…
"You're Heads," She Says. "You're Tails."
As I peer from the window of the third-story lab in Bingham Building, I can just see the other guy crossing the rain-slicked cobblestones of the quad. He's hunched over, defeated. In shock, probably. He has no bags, but he's leaving forever. Everything he owns is on his back or…
Reversals
The birds are all screwed up this morning, and for a minute I'm distracted by a swirling flock of swallows that climbs and dives around and around in a crazy loop outside the window. Then I shake my head and say to Njoki again, "I don't want you leaving the house after school."…
Older, Wiser, Time Traveler
First off, step one--commit a crime of passion. You shouldn't plan this, obviously. In fact, you can't plan this. The defining characteristic of a crime of passion is precisely that it's unplanned. Oh sure, there are tendencies. There are indications. A crime of passion doesn't…