I chose to kick off this collection with a story that appeared inBaen’s Universe. It’s one of my favorites and hews very close to the dream that inspired it. The dream ended just before the very end, leaving me to figure out which of many ways I might end the tale.
The house at 94 Twining Lane had a reputation. It was known in real-estate circles as a “haunted house.” This did not mean, of course, that it was literally haunted, merely that prospective buyers wouldn’t touch it—presumably because they thought it was haunted.
It sat on a large corner lot that had once been nicely landscaped, but was now in dire need of many things, such as water and hedge trimmers. The house itself was charming at first glance, but on closer inspection had that air of neglect that suggests everyone in the family had died suddenly and simultaneously, leaving no heirs. Its shingles were unpainted, its shutters an indescribable shade of gray-blue-green, its windows dusty.
