Maureen F. McHugh

Jan 17, 2024 | tor.com | Maureen F. McHugh |Katherine Lam |Ellen Datlow

An engineer who frequently travels for her job, suddenly finds herself in airports other than the one she arrived in…When she got off the plane, Amelia was thinking about her boyfriend, Jerome. They’d been arguing about the laundry. “If you want me to do the laundry, just tell me to do it!” Jerome had said. They’d been together for six years. During the pandemic they’d bought a townhouse in South Austin and were now in huge joint debt, plus Amelia’s student loan.

Feb 7, 2023 | uncannymagazine.com | Maureen F. McHugh |Clockpunk Studios

In 1981, Amelia moved to New York City. Brooklyn. Specifically, Prospect Heights, where she rented a room in a rooming house on a street of four-story brownstones. Her room had ornate molding and a white marble fireplace veined in gray that had been bricked up. Her landlady told her never to go to up the street to the right, the neighborhood was dangerous. She did walk right, one Sunday morning when the street was silent. The dangerous were surely still in bed, sleeping off Saturday night.