She stays out of sight in the morning, crouched among the equipment in the back of the pickup truck. The soldiers hand out MREs. Ted, one of the contractors, smuggles her one.
She thinks of Franny. Nate will keep an eye on her. Jane was only a year older than Franny when she lit out for California the first time. For a second she pictures Franny’s face as the convoy pulls out.
Then she doesn’t think of Franny.
She doesn’t know where she is going. She is in motion.
Acknowledgments
I will forget to thank someone. I always do. Please, I beg forgiveness in advance.
First, thanks to the folks at the Rio Hondo workshop: many of these stories were critiqued at 9,000 feet in the Taos Ski Valley. I can’t thank all of you because I will forget someone, I know but thanks especially to Walter Jon Williams who first brought me to a part of the country I love more than I can say. To L. Timmi Duchamp, and to Ellen Datlow, who asked for stories. To Caroline Spector, who read for me. To the group in Austin—Jessica Reisman, Caroline Yoachim, Ellen Van Hensbergen, Jen Volant, and Meg McCarron—reading, food, and cocktails. Thanks to the folks at WisCon for making the space in the world that they do. To Karen Joy Fowler for writing what she writes as much as for her insightful comments. To Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link for being so enthusiastic about, of all things, another collection of short stories. To Jackie Tunure at Fourth Wall Studios, who read for me in Los Angeles. To all the people I met at Clarion who have started out as students and gone on to be come friends and colleagues—you have no idea how much you have taught me.
To Adam who asked me to write “The Naturalist” based on a dream he had, and to Bob, who has always treated me as if there was nothing at all strange about my choice of careers.
Publication History
These stories were originally published as follows:
“The Naturalist”
“Special Economics,”
“Useless Things,”
“The Lost Boy: A Reporter at Large,”
“The Kingdom of the Blind,”
“Going to France,”
“Honeymoon,” “After the Apocalypse,” and “The Effect of Centrifugal Forces” appear here for the first time.
About the Author
Maureen F. McHugh has lived in NYC; Shijiazhuang, China; Ohio; and Austin, Texas; and now lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of a collection,
Since 2001, Small Beer Press, an independent publishing house, has published satisfying and surreal novels and short story collections by award-winning writers and exciting talents whose names you may never have heard, but whose work you’ll never be able to forget:
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Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud,
John Crowley,
John Crowley,
Alan DeNiro,
Hal Duncan,
Carol Emshwiller,
Carol Emshwiller,
Carol Emshwiller,
Kelley Eskridge,
Karen Joy Fowler,
Greer Gilman,
Angelica Gorodischer,
Alasdair Gray,
Elizabeth Hand
Julia Holmes,
Ayize Jama-Everett,
John Kessel,
Kathe Koja,
Nancy Kress,
Ellen Kushner
Kelly Link,
Karen Lord,
Laurie J. Marks,
Laurie J. Marks,
Laurie J. Marks,
Eduardo Jimenez Mayo and Chris Brown, eds.,
Vincent McCaffrey,
Vincent McCaffrey,
Maureen F. McHugh,
Naomi Mitchison
Benjamin Parzybok,
Benjamin Rosenbaum,
