The Girl Who Loved Animals - A Short Story
Description
Lissy loves animals. The man she met in the park told her that she could do something to help save animals that are extinct—animals no-one will ever see again. The baby she’s carrying will only be hers for a little while, but the man said she can visit it whenever she wants.
When her husband found out he tried to kill her, and now nobody wants her to have her baby. Lissy’s only hope is Jo, a kind social worker who understands what this baby means to Lissy and to the world.
“The Girl Who Loved Animals” is a novelette of approximately 7,500 words. It originally appeared in OMNI Magazine, and was reprinted in The Girl Who Loved Animals and Other Stories, published by Golden Gryphon Press.
“Bruce McAllister is one of the least known and greatest talents working in the science fiction field today.”
—Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories
“Among top short story talents in the field, McAllister is a leader. Polished, moving, thought-provoking — this collection is without parallel.”
— Harry Harrison, Science Fiction Grand Master
“Bruce McAllister is that rarity, a writer who can do anything. His stories range from the sweet to the terrifying, idea-dense to atmospheric, character-rich to event-packed. And sometimes all of this in the same story. Writers read other writers to learn tricks, but I often cannot see how he does it. He’s a magician.”
— Gregory Benford
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The Girl Who Loved Animals - A Short Story - Bruce McAllister
The Girl Who Loved Animals
Lissy loves animals. The man she met in the park told her that she could do something to help save animals that are extinct—animals no-one will ever see again. The baby she’s carrying will only be hers for a little while, but the man said she can visit it whenever she wants.
When her husband found out what she’d done he tried to kill her, and now nobody wants her to have her baby. Lissy’s only hope is Jo, a kind social worker who understands what this baby means to Lissy and to the world.
break ornamentBruce McAllister is one of the least known and greatest talents working in the science fiction field today.
—Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories
Among top short story talents in the field, McAllister is a leader. Polished, moving, thought-provoking — this collection is without parallel.
— Harry Harrison, Science Fiction Grand Master
Bruce McAllister is that rarity, a writer who can do anything. His stories range from the sweet to the terrifying, idea-dense to atmospheric, character-rich to event-packed. And sometimes all of this in the same story. Writers read other writers to learn tricks, but I often cannot see how he does it. He’s a magician.
— Gregory Benford
break ornamentContents
Synopsis
Copyright Page
The Girl Who Loved Animals
The Girl Who Loved Animals Story Notes
About Bruce McAllister
More Fiction by Bruce McAllister
break ornamentThe Girl Who Loved Animals
is copyright © 1988, 2015, Bruce McAllister, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publisher, with the exception of brief passages quoted in reviews.
The Girl Who Loved Animals
was originally published in OMNI, edited by Ellen Datlow and Patrice Adcroft, in 1988.
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The Girl Who Loved Animals title pageThe Girl Who Loved Animals
THEY HAD HER ON the seventeenth floor in their new hi-security unit on Figueroa and weren’t going to let me up. Captain Mendoza, the one who thinks I’m the ugliest woman he’s ever laid eyes on and somehow manages to take it personally, was up there with her, and no one else was allowed. Or so this young lieutenant with a fresh academy tattoo on his left thumb tries to tell me. I get up real close so the kid can hear me over the screaming media crowd in the lobby and see this infamous face of mine, and I tell him I don’t think Chief Stracher will like getting a call at 0200 hours just because some desk cadet can’t tell a