A Woman's Best Friend

On Christmas Eve, a man named George throws himself into the river, only to be "rescued" by an entity that calls itself an angel. And now poor George is a castaway on an alternate earth, and his only friend is a woman who looks and sounds very much like his pretty lost wife.

"The gangly man was running up the street, his long legs pushing through the fresh unplowed snow. He was a stranger; or at least that was her initial impression. In ways Mary couldn't quite define, he acted both lost and at home. His face and manner were confused, yet he nonetheless seemed to navigate as if he recognized some portion of his surroundings. From a distance, his features seemed pleasantly anonymous, his face revealing little of itself except for a bony, perpetually boyish composition. Then a streetlamp caught him squarely, and he looked so earnest and desperate, and so sweetly silly, that she found herself laughing, however impolite that was."

Robert Reed is the author of many published science fiction stories, including his popular Great Ship series. Reed was awarded a Hugo for his novella, "A Billion Eves."


Genre: Science Fiction