The Disappearance of James H

•

•

•

•

CONTENTS

The Disappearance of James H___

Before Paphos

o

Art Gallery

o

Articles

o

Columns

By Hal Duncan

o

Fiction

13 June 2005

o

Poetry

1. The New Boy

o

Reviews

o

Archives

There is a new boy at the school. He sits at the by Stephanie Burgis desk where Brown once sat, and carved his name in the wood with a pocketknife's point, and 1 January 2007 was caned for it; but he is not Brown. He is green. His eyes flash emerald and jade, the You can never let colour of gemstones and jungles, foreign seas and anyone suspect, his forest serpents. He sits where Brown once sat mother told him. That but the master does not notice, nor order him to was the first rule she read from Homer, nor snap his name as he gazes taught him, and the last, out the window. As he turns to look at me, before she left him here languid, smiling in his sly silence. alone with It.

ABOUT US o

Staff

o

Guidelines

o

Contact

o

Awards

o

Banners

2. A Fob Watch

by Loretta Casteen 8 January 2007 It starts again. The baby begins to cough and choke. Locked Doors

Heroic Measures

We watch the fifth formers in the cloisters, all tall by Matthew Johnson enough to wear tailcoats, dandies in top hats, thin cigars in their mouths. I have studied the way they18 December 2006 o Donate stand, perfected the slouch—both knees bent a Pale as he was, it was little, one shoulder slightly higher than the other, hard to believe he o Bookstore one hand jammed into a pocket. But I still need would never rise from o Merchandise my fob watch to strike that pose, to be fetching this bed. Even in the it out to check the time, not simply, darkest times, she had COMMUNITY self-assuredly louche. So Scottish in my reserve. never really feared for o Forum —Why do you want to be like them? he says. him; he had always been strong, so strong. o Readers' —I do not want to be like Brown, I say. Choice Love Among the Talus SUPPORT US

3. In the Dormitory

by Elizabeth Bear

He takes off the starched collar and the 11 December 2006 bum-freezer jacket, unbuttons his shirt. In his white breeches and shirt open to the waist but stillNilufer raised her eyes tucked in, he looks like some prince kidnapped to his. It was not what by pirates to serve as cabin boy, or some pauper women did to men, but taken in by a kind doctor, scrubbed clean to she was a princess, and wear a lost son's clothes. Half-dressed, he seems he was only a bandit. "I half-costumed. An actor changing between want to be a Witch," scenes. His nightshirt lies on the bed, long flowing she said. "A Witch and white as if he is to play Juliet. But it is my cheeks not a Queen. I wish to that are blushed and virginal. He removes his be not loved, but wise. shirt. His breeches. His drawers. Tell your bandit lord, if he can give me that, I 4. Never Never might accept his gift." —Shall I play the pipes for you, James? he asks. Archived Fiction Dating