Magic Terror. Peter Straub

Magic Terror - Peter  Straub


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      Peter Straub

      MAGIC TERROR

      [7 tales]

       Copyright

      Grateful acknowledgement is made to Georges Borchardt, Inc., for permission to reprint six lines from ‘Down by the Station, Early in the Morning’, from A Wave, by John Ashbery (New York: Viking, 1984). Copyright © 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 by John Ashbery. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., for the author.

      All of the pieces in this work have been previously published: ‘Ashputtle’ was originally published in Black Thorn, White Rose, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (William Morrow, 1994); ‘Isn’t It Romantic?’ was originally published in Murder on the Run, by the Adams Round Table (Berkley, 1998); ‘The Ghost Village’ was originally published in The Mists from Beyond, edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg (ROC, 1993); ‘Porkpie Hat’ was originally published in Murder for Halloween, edited by Michele Slung and Roland Hartman (Mysterious Press, 1994); ‘Bunny Is Good Bread’ was originally published, under the title ‘Fee’, in Borderlands 4, edited by Elizabeth E. Monteleone and Thomas F. Monteleone (Borderlands Press, 1994); ‘Hunger, an Introduction’ was originally published in Ghosts, edited by Peter Straub (Borderlands Press, 1995); and ‘Mr Clubb and ‘Mr Cuff was originally published in Murder for Revenge, edited by Otto Penzler (Delacorte Press, 1998).

      HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperColIinsPublishers 2001

      First published in the USA by Random House 2000

      Copyright © Peter Straub 2000

      The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN; 9780007109906

      Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007401574 Version: 2016-08-10

       Dedication

       For Lawrence Block

       Epigraph

      The result is magic, then terror, then pity at the emptiness, Then air gradually bathing and filling the emptiness as it leaks, Emoting all over something that is probably mere reportage. But nevertheless likes being emoted on.

      … the light

      From the lighthouse that protects us as it pushes us away.

      ‘Down by the Station, Early in the Morning.’ JOHN ASHBERY

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Bunny Is Good Bread

       Porkpie Hat

       Hunger, an Introduction

       Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff

       About the Author

       Also by Peter Straub

       Praise

       About the Publisher

       Ashputtle

      People think that teaching little children has something to do with helping other people, something to do with service. People think that if you teach little children, you must love them. People get what they need from thoughts like this.

      People think that if you happen to be very fat and are a person who acts happy and cheerful all the time, you are probably pretending to be that way in order to make them forget how fat you are, or cause them to forgive you for being so fat. They make this assumption, thinking you are so stupid that you imagine that you’re getting away with this charade. From this assumption, they get confidence in the superiority of their intelligence over yours, and they get to pity you, too.

      Those figments, those stepsisters, came to me and said, Don’t you know that we want to help you? They came to me and said, Can you tell us what your life is like?

      These moronic questions they asked over and over: Are you all right? Is anything happening to you? Can you talk to us now, darling? Can you tell us about your life?

      I stared straight ahead, not looking at their pretty hair or pretty eyes or pretty mouths. I looked over their shoulders at the pattern on the wallpaper and tried not to blink until they stood up and went away.

      What my life was like? What was happening to me?

      Nothing was happening to me. I was all right.

      They smiled briefly, like a twitch in their eyes and mouths, before they stood up and left me alone. I sat still on my chair and looked at the wallpaper while they talked


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