Derek Paterson - Higher Than Usual

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By Derek Paterson

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Fiction

16 April 2001

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Poetry

Perkins came up to me and he was

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Before Paphos by Loretta Casteen 8 January 2007 It starts again. The baby begins to cough and choke. Locked Doors

grinning from ear to ear, his eyes dancing by Stephanie Burgis with an unexpected madness that made 1 January 2007 me take a step back and look at him suspiciously. You can never let anyone suspect, his mother told him. "We've got one of them," he told me That was the first rule she taught gleefully. him, and the last, before she left him here alone with It. "One of what?" I asked, bewildered.

Heroic Measures "One of them," he said, as if that explained it. "Cheeky sod from Accounts o Awards came upstairs and tried to get a coffee by Matthew Johnson out of our vending machine. Can you 18 December 2006 o Banners believe it? Out of our vending machine." Pale as he was, it was hard to SUPPORT US He was holding a plastic coffee cup and I believe he would never rise wanted to sniff it to make sure he wasn't from this bed. Even in the o Donate having a caffeine overload. darkest times, she had never o Bookstore really feared for him; he had "Are you feeling all right?" I asked. always been strong, so strong. o Merchandise He nodded, still grinning, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "The lads have Love Among the Talus COMMUNITY got him in the toilets. They're giving him a by Elizabeth Bear o Forum damned good thrashing. That'll teach him to come up onto our floor. Accounts will 11 December 2006 o Readers' think twice before they mess with us Choice Nilufer raised her eyes to his. It again." was not what women did to He turned and stalked away, leaving me men, but she was a princess, confused and shaken. I'd have to have a and he was only a bandit. "I word with someone about him. I didn't want to be a Witch," she said. want to get him into trouble or anything, "A Witch and not a Queen. I but there were limits. If he had a drink wish to be not loved, but wise. problem, the company would try to help Tell your bandit lord, if he can him. There were groups he could give me that, I might accept his join. . . . gift." o

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As soon as I reached my desk, my phone Archived Fiction Dating back to started ringing and I forgot all about 9/1/00 Perkins. It was a busy morning and I only managed to grab a coffee myself around eleven. I glanced at my newspaper while I sipped the foul stuff, wondering whether I'd be better off drinking paint solvent.