The Imaginary Lives of Mechanical Men Part 17

"Yeah. Rocks and snow."

"What about the other one?"

"Rifken? We split up about an hour ago. I came over the top; he's working his way around the ridge."

"I'd call in if I was you. Anyhow, I'm headed up to the roadblock on 321. You need anything?"

"No," says Hargadon. "We're headed in."

The trooper steps through the just-softening snow to his car and guns the engine before driving away. Hargadon follows with his eyes, noticing how the slush holds the impression of the tires and how the sun has found one or two patches of asphalt. The windows of the patrol car glisten as it recedes, and the engine fades to a soft purr, and then to nothing. There is only a clean, cold rush from the valley. As the car disappears around the last curve, Hargadon takes a long draft of pure mountain air and lets his eyes wander from the road. Up to the stand of hemlocks where he sees white movement, a bent branch, and a cascade of snow. Like a great white owl taking flight.

The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction David Walton, Evening Out.

Leigh Allison Wilson, From the Bottom Up.

Sandra Thompson, Close-Ups.

Susan Neville, The Invention of Flight

Mary Hood, How Far She Went.

Francois Camoin, Why Men Are Afraid of Women

Molly Giles, Rough Translations

Daniel Curley, Living with Snakes

Peter Meinke, The Piano Tuner

Tony Ardizzone, The Evening News

Salvatore La Puma, The Boys of Bensonhurst

Melissa Pritchard, Spirit Seizures

Philip F. Deaver, Silent Retreats

Gail Galloway Adams, The Purchase of Order

Carole L. Glickfeld, Useful Gifts

Antonya Nelson, The Expendables

Nancy Zafris, The People I Know

Debra Monroe, The Source of Trouble

Robert H. Abel, Ghost Traps

T. M. McNally, Low Flying Aircraft

Alfred DePew, The Melancholy of Departure

Dennis Hathaway, The Consequences of Desire

Rita Ciresi, Mother Rocket

Dianne Nelson, A Brief History of Male Nudes in America

Christopher McIlroy, All My Relations

Alyce Miller, The Nature of Longing

Carol Lee Lorenzo, Nervous Dancer

C. M. Mayo, Sky over El Nido

Wendy Brenner, Large Animals in Everyday Life

Paul Rawlins, No Lie Like Love

Harvey Grossinger, The Quarry

Ha Jin, Under the Red Flag

Andy Plattner, Winter Money