•   CONTENTS                                                                   Before Paphos
                          The Disappearance
           Art Gallery                                                         by Loretta Casteen
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                          of James H___
           Articles                                                            8 January 2007
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                          By Hal Duncan
           Columns                                                             It starts again. The baby
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                                                                               begins to cough and
                          13 June 2005
           Fiction
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                          1. The New Boy
           Poetry
       o                                                                       Locked Doors
                          There is a new boy at the school. He sits at the
           Reviews
       o                                                                    by Stephanie Burgis
                          desk where Brown once sat, and carved his
                          name in the wood with a pocketknife's point, and 1 January 2007
           Archives
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                          was caned for it; but he is not Brown. He is
•   ABOUT US              green. His eyes flash emerald and jade, the       You can never let
                          colour of gemstones and jungles, foreign seas and anyone suspect, his
           Staff
       o
                          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
           Guidelines
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                          read from Homer, nor snap his name as he gazes taught him, and the last,
           Contact        out the window. As he turns to look at me,        before she left him here
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                          languid, smiling in his sly silence.              alone with It.
           Awards
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                                                                               Heroic Measures
                          2. A Fob Watch
           Banners
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                    We watch the fifth formers in the cloisters, all tall by Matthew Johnson
•   SUPPORT US
                    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
      o Bookstore   little, one shoulder slightly higher than the other, hard to believe he
                    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                                                             him; he had always been
                    —Why do you want to be like them? he says.
                                                                          strong, so strong.
      o Readers'
                    —I do not want to be like Brown, I say.
        Choice                                                            Love Among the Talus
                          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