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Jessie
Jessie
Jessie
Ebook45 pages38 minutes

Jessie

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Tommy knows the rules. Stay off the logs on the beach. Walk near the water but don't get your feet wet. And if the sick try to get you, don't stop to think -- just drop, roll, and run away fast.

Tommy's still alive because he followed the rules. Then he meets Jessie, a girl who doesn't believe in rules, not even the most important rule of all: tell people if you're sick.

This edition of "Jessie" includes a BONUS copy of Annie Reed's zombie survivor story "Patient Z."

"The appearance of a new Annie Reed story is a treat. Try one and you'll be hooked." -- Dave Hendrickson, author of CRACKING THE ICE, forthcoming from WestSide Press

Annie Reed is a prolific writer whose fiction has been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as well as in numerous anthologies from Daw and Pocket Books.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 1, 2011
ISBN9781458056177
Jessie
Author

Annie Reed

Award-winning author and editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch calls Annie Reed “one of the best writers I’ve come across in years.”Annie’s won recognition for her stellar writing across multiple genres. Her story “The Color of Guilt” originally published in Fiction River: Hidden in Crime, was selected as one of The Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016. Her story “One Sun, No Waiting” was one of the first science fiction stories honored with a literary fellowship award by the Nevada Arts Foundation, and her novel PRETTY LITTLE HORSES was among the finalists in the Best First Private Eye Novel sponsored by St. Martin’s Press and the Private Eye Writers of America.A frequent contributor to the Fiction River anthologies and Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Annie’s recent work includes the superhero origin novel FASTER, the near-future science fiction short novel IN DREAMS, and UNBROKEN FAMILIAR, a gritty urban fantasy mystery short novel. Annie’s also one of the founding members of the innovative Uncollected Anthology, a quarterly series of themed urban fantasy stories written by some of the best writers working today.Annie’s mystery novels include the Abby Maxon private investigator novels PRETTY LITTLE HORSES and PAPER BULLETS, the Jill Jordan mystery A DEATH IN CUMBERLAND, and the suspense novel SHADOW LIFE, written under the name Kris Sparks, as well as numerous other projects she can’t wait to get to. For more information about Annie, including news about upcoming bundles and publications, go to www.annie-reed.com.

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    Book preview

    Jessie - Annie Reed

    JESSIE

    Annie Reed

    With complete bonus story

    PATIENT Z

    JESSIE

    Copyright © 2011 Annie Reed

    PATIENT Z

    Copyright © 2011 Annie Reed

    Published by Thunder Valley Press at Smashwords

    Cover art copyright 2008 by Ivan Bliznetsov at iStockphoto.com

    Cover and layout Copyright © 2011 Thunder Valley Press

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    These stories are licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

    Table of Contents

    Jessie

    Patient Z (Bonus Story)

    Copyright Information

    About the Author

    Jessie

    Tommy met Jessie on the beach.

    He'd been wandering along the shore line, walking on the wet sand because it was easier, and playing keep away with the waves so his shoes wouldn't get wet. The day was cold and cloudy. He was looking for driftwood to make a fire, but he wasn't looking all that hard. This part of the beach was sheltered from the big part of the ocean by a sand bar, and for some reason there was a lot of driftwood here. Everything from dry twigs and bark to huge old tree trunks covered with big black splotches that looked like they'd come from a burned out forest about a million years ago. Tommy wanted to climb on top of the biggest ones and see what he could see, but Leon always told him to stay off the logs, it wasn't safe, just like Leon had told him to walk along the water because the sick wouldn't go in the water and it was one way to get away from them.

    That hadn't turned out to be true, but Tommy still walked along the water's edge like Leon told him to even though Leon wasn't there anymore.

    Tommy had just picked up a piece of wood about the size of his forearm when he saw her sitting on top of a huge log near the water's edge, watching him.

    You're not supposed to be up there, he said.

    She stuck her tongue out at him. Says who?

    A wave could come in and knock you off and drop the log on top of you, and no one would come to help you get it off.

    She shrugged. So?

    Tommy didn't have an answer for that, so he shrugged back.

    What's your name? she asked.

    Tommy told her, and she told him her name was Jessie. Tommy didn't ask her how old she was, and she didn't ask him. Nobody really cared about that stuff anymore. Grownups were the only people who wanted to know, and

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