Amusia

by Brad Munson and Bruce McAllister

About the Author: Brad Munson is a writer and editor of fiction and non-fiction who has told stories in the worlds of The Amityville Horror, Men in Black, WolfCop, and Star Trek. His most recent fiction includes Heroes, the final book in Z.A. Recht’s apocalypse series, and Brad's own three-book supernatural disaster series, The Rain Triptych. He has also written screenplays in the suspense genre. Bruce McAllister's short fiction has appeared in international magazines (MYSTERY WEEKLY and ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE) and "year's best" volumes; and won or been shortlisted for awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Hugo, the Nebula, and others. His Hugo-nominated short story "Kin" was chosen to launch actor LeVar Burton's new podcast, LEVAR BURTON READS.

Excerpt

The disorder we have termed amusia can be a devastating affliction. Yet the patient suffering this affliction often achieves insights he would not otherwise achieve. It is as if he had been set free to truly hear and see. — August Knoblauch, 1890

David looked at his gruel and said, with only a slight slur, “It’s true: I’m the luckiest dead man ever.”

His daughter Laura brushed her bangs out of her eyes—looking like the little girl he remembered. “You are lucky, Pops. You aren’t dead.” She’d taken care of him just like this when her mother died, and both of them were grieving. Laura had been twenty-two then. She was thirty-seven now.

“Yet,” he said.

“Pops …”

David would have shrugged, but with only one of his shoulders able to move he knew how grotesque it looked. He resisted the temptation and just scowled instead. He had become very good at scowling in the last ten weeks.

“I know,” he said, “I’m lucky to still be alive. And this—” He flopped a hand slightly, enough for Laura to notice, but not enough to trigger tears. “—I can live with.”

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