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Birthday Party

by Bruce McAllister

About the Author: Bruce McAllister's short fiction has appeared in many print and online magazines 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 yacht in question, manufactured by Blohm+Voss out of Hamburg, was anchored at the remote isthmus of California’s Catalina Island, not far from where a famous actress with doe eyes died under mysterious circumstances half a century before. The isthmus, a narrow piece of land with ocean on either side and a few buildings built during the nation’s Civil War, hadn’t changed in those decades, except for a few more moorings in the little bay, a terrible restaurant, and the old dock where shuttles operated by the yacht’s AI were even now beginning to take happy, smiling guests out to the Gypsy.

The yacht in question had been there for four days and, even when simply anchored and still, was intimidating to other craft. Because smaller yachts were now avoiding the little bay, the superyacht was alone as twilight arrived on the 46th birthday of the yacht’s owner, Liam Copeland.

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