Ed Gorman - Moonchasers and Other Stories

Moonchasers first appeared in Criminal Intent, copyright 1993 by Ed Gorman.

Turn Away first appeared in The Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction, copyright 1987 by Ed Gorman.

Seasons of the Heart first appeared in Partners in Crime, copyright 1994 by Ed Gorman.

En Famine first appeared in Ellery Queen, copyright 1995 by Ed Gorman. Mother Darkness first appeared in New Crimes, copyright 1992 by Ed Gorman.

The Beast in the Woods first appeared in The Mysterious West, copyright 1994 by Ed Gorman.

One of Those Days, One of Those Nights first appeared in Crime Yellow, copyright 1994 by Ed Gorman.

Surrogate first appeared in Murder Is My Business, copyright 1994 by Ed Gorman.

The Reason Why first appeared in Criminal Elements, copyright 1988 by Ed Gorman.

The Ugly File first appeared in Borderlands, copyright 1993 by Ed Gorman.

Friends first appeared in New Crimes, copyright 1990 by Ed Gorman.

Bless Us O Lord first appeared in Shivers, copyright 1992 by Ed Gorman.

Stalker first appeared in Stalkers, copyright 1990 by Ed Gorman.

The Wind from Midnight first appeared in The Bradbury Chronicles, copyright 1991 by Ed Gorman.

Prisoners first appeared in New Crimes, copyright 1989 by Ed Gorman.

Render unto Caesar first appeared in Pulphouse, copyright 1991 by Ed Gorman.

Out There in the Darkness copyright 1996 by Ed Gorman.

Afterword copyright 1992 by Dean Koontz.

These stories are, at least in an oblique way, a record of my time on the planet.

A lot of the people youll meet here, Ive known in life.

The dwarf woman of The Wind from Midnight, for instance, is a dwarf woman I used to work with in a hotel. At days end we frequently pushed a pint of cheap bourbon back and forth, a forlorn pair of scared drunks. She died long ago, when we were young. I still occasionally visit her grave and talk to her. She was a lovely, endearing woman.

The hero of Moonchasers is a kid I grew up with, one who, at fifteen, knew more about honor and wisdom than I know today.

The old man in Render unto Caesar did in life what he does in my story walk around the neighborhood looking for dead cats, which he then gave decent burials. A strange old guy, to be sure, but a profoundly decent soul for all his oddness. And, yes, the young woman existed, too, and her husband really was that violent with her.

What happens to the married couple in Stalker happened to friends of mine. Their daughter was murdered. The couple never recovered. That happens a lot, as people in the victims rights movement will tell you. Look at the face of Ron Goldmans father sometime. I hope that someday hell find peace again.

The Ugly File is based on a woman I did a documentary film about. She gave birth to a terribly deformed baby. She felt estranged from the entire human race. She didnt think even her husband could understand what she was going through, as perhaps he couldnt.

The woman in Prisoners is based on a bright, elegant, talented young woman who used to work with me and who spent several long sad years visiting her husband in prison.

And so on.

None of these stories is literally autobiographical, of course. Im a storyteller, not a diarist.

But in choosing the tales for this collection, I tended to select those pieces that had personal meaning for me. I didnt choose any that relied strictly on plot. The older I get, the less those stories interest me as either reader or writer.

A number of editors should be thanked here: Janet Hutchings, of Ellery Queen, who is not only an astute editor but one of the gentlest people Ive ever known; Kris Rusch, of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, who knows how to get the best from me; Rich Chizmar, of Cemetery Dance, who helps me push against the constraints of the predictable; and Greg Cox, of Forge, who is a past master at handling writers. He makes you think that all those great ideas were yours, not his. Thanks for everything, Greg.

Finally, Id like to thank my beautiful wife, Carol, for her patience, support and encouragement; and my beautiful mother for driving me to the library all those years ago when she probably had much better things to do.

I had a good time writing these stories. I hope you have a good time reading them.

Yes, sir, it was just about the best sort of summer you could ask for, when you were fifteen, that is, and it was 1958 and you were living in Somerton, Iowa, which is forty miles due east of Waterloo, where just a month earlier Id seen Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps all perform at the Electric Light Ballroom.

Of course, neither Barney nor I let on that it was a good summer because if there is one thing that Barney and I liked to do it was bitch about living our lives out in Somerton, Pop. 16, 438. There were maybe five pretty girls our age, none of whom would have a darn thing to do with us, and one mean and muscular seventeen-year-old named Maynard whom Barney and I had in some way offended (if Maynard wanted to be pissed at anybody, it should have been his parents for giving him that name). Fortunately for us, Hamblins Rexall had a good supply of science fiction magazines and Gold Medal suspense novels and Ace Double Books. And the Garden Theater likewise had the usual good supply of movies with monsters in them. And Robert Mitchum.

That was the big thing Barney and I had in common. Sure we liked Amazing and Fantastic with all those nifty Valigursky covers, and sure we liked all those teen monster movies with all those Southern California bikini girls, and sure we thought that Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift and the late James Dean were really cool, but the coolest guy of all was Robert Mitchum. The Garden brought back Thunder Road for a week and Barney and I went four days running. And the same for when the Garden brought back Night of the Hunter and Blood on the Moon. We were there because Mitch was there.

Anyway, thats sort of the picture of how things were in our lives before that hot August night when Barney and I walked along the railroad tracks out on the east edge of town, smoking on a fresh contraband package of Lucky Strikes, and sipping at two ice-dripping eight-cent bottles of Pepsi.

Weysd pretty much decided that this was going to be the night we broke into the abandoned warehouse and found out just what was in there. According to most of the little kids in Somerton, the warehouse was home to various kinds of spooks. Older kids, who didnt just have drivers ed learner permits like ours, took a different slant. They said that the migrant workers from the next town over snuck their daughters in there at night and ran a whorehouse that put all others to shame.

In the moonlight, the railroad tracks shone silver for a quarter of a mile. The air smelled of hot creosote from the railroad ties that had baked all day in the sun. Between tracks and warehouse was a winding creek, along the dark banks of which you could smell summer mud and hear throaty frogs and see the silhouette of the willow tree bent and weeping.