The cat was staring at him, occasionally half-shutting and re-opening its eyes. I found it unnerving, at first, but somehow, soothing, too. Far more unsettling was the putative client, sitting in a chair beside the cat’s own, who concluded his brief self-identification this way: “I believe we have a valid…

Jeph realized his mistake much too late, turning the corner to return to gym class, to avoid a dreaded collision of the other boy’s fist against his cheek. At first, he saw nothing — not spots, not bright lights — as his head snapped back against the concrete of the…

Each morning, Nika Starek awakened from uneasy sleep, with a variation of the same thought: Has anything ‘gone to Hades’ out there? She would call upon every source of external information to gain some quick confidence that no damage had been done in Reality. Not just her preferred version of…

“I’ll say this for you, doll,” shouted the man with the pistol, over the blast of the air rushing past them. “You got some serious nerve — I guess, you need some. Doing what you do, up here. Do they grow dames, like you, a lot, up there, or was…

He joked, “Can we shut the windows, please? I feel a drought coming on” — not a draft, which his guests would expect him to utter. Those persons, then in his home, whose wits were as nimble as his own, smiled, even chuckled at his jest, because Shai was like…

Appropriately, his conclusion was grim; the Wolf, he said, had a talent for… making men disappear. Ettore was used to getting, at least, a bit dirty when the occasion warranted it, but he cleaned up afterwards — if it were possible to do so. …

“Those stars, Suzette Kahurangi Bonner, will still be up there in a minute, so could you, please… look at me? Right now? I’m trying to tell you something. It’s important, I swear.” Must have been serious, to warrant using her Maori name, too, Suzi thought. It was funny, her brother’s…

Brian must have been bleeding, all the way home. Didn’t notice, until he turned the corner of the last intersection, to walk the last three blocks to his front door, that it had even happened; never mind, its severity. …

It wasn’t me, your very own Dáire, that pissed away the old duffer’s secret, no, never! That evening in the Red Deer tavern, it was Uilleag himself who declared: “That’s it, I’ve had my fill of you all, this smelly bog, all of it, and so, I’m on my bike…