•   CONTENTS                                                        Before Paphos
                         Little Brother™
           Art Gallery                                              by Loretta Casteen
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                         By Bruce Holland Rogers 8 January 2007
           Articles
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                         30 October 2000
           Columns                                                  It starts again. The baby
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                                                                    begins to cough and choke.
                         Peter had wanted a Little Brother™ for
           Fiction
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                    three Christmases in a row. His favorite TV Locked Doors
      o Poetry      commercials were the ones that showed just
                    how much fun he would have teaching Little by Stephanie Burgis
         Reviews
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                    Brother™ to do all the things that he could
                                                                  1 January 2007
                    already do himself. But every year, Mommy
      o Archives
                    had said that Peter wasn't ready for a Little You can never let anyone
•   ABOUT US        Brother™. Until this year.                    suspect, his mother told him.
                                                                  That was the first rule she
      o Staff       This year when Peter ran into the living
                                                                  taught him, and the last,
                    room, there sat Little Brother™ among all
                                                                  before she left him here alone
      o Guidelines  the wrapped presents, babbling baby talk,
                                                                  with It.
                    smiling his happy smile, and patting one of
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                    the packages with his fat little hand. Peter Heroic Measures
                    was so excited that he ran up and gave Little
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                    Brother™ a big hug around the neck. That by Matthew Johnson
      o Banners     was how he found out about the button.
                    Peter's hand pushed against something cold 18 December 2006
•   SUPPORT US      on Little Brother™'s neck, and suddenly
                                                                  Pale as he was, it was hard
                    Little Brother™ wasn't babbling any more,
      o Donate                                                    to believe he would never
                    or even sitting up. Suddenly, Little
                                                                  rise from this bed. Even in
                    Brother™ was limp on the floor, as lifeless
         Bookstore
      o                                                           the darkest times, she had
                    as any ordinary doll.
                                                                  never really feared for him;
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                                                                  he had always been strong,
                    "Peter!" Mommy said.
                                                                  so strong.
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                    "I didn't mean to!"
                                                                  Love Among the Talus
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                    Mommy picked up Little Brother™, sat him
                    in her lap, and pressed the black button at by Elizabeth Bear
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         Choice     the back of his neck. Little Brother™'s face
                                                                  11 December 2006
                    came alive, and it wrinkled up as if he were
                    about to cry, but Mommy bounced him on Nilufer raised her eyes to his.
                    her knee and told him what a good boy he It was not what women did
                    was. He didn't cry after all.                 to men, but she was a
                                                                  princess, and he was only a
                    "Little Brother™ isn't like your other toys,
                                                                  bandit. "I want to be a
                    Peter," Mommy said. "You have to be extra
                                                                  Witch," she said. "A Witch
                    careful with him, as if he were a real baby."
                                                                  and not a Queen. I wish to
                    She put Little Brother™ down on the floor,
                                                                  be not loved, but wise. Tell
                    and he took tottering baby steps toward
                                                                  your bandit lord, if he can
                    Peter. "Why don't you let him help open
                                                                  give me that, I might accept
                    your other presents?"
                                                                  his gift."
                    So that's what Peter did. He showed Little
                                                                  Archived Fiction Dating
                    Brother™ how to tear the paper and open
                                                                  back to 9/1/00
                    the boxes. The other toys were a fire engine,
                    some talking books, a wagon, and lots and
                    lots of wooden blocks. The fire engine was