“I like it,” Jenny said now, patting her belly.
Then she gasped and leaned forward in her chair. She was having a contraction.
Oh, my.
She heard a door open inside, then Kim appeared, flushed and out breath. “Mom, I sold another drawing. The Luna moth. I got two hundred dollars for it.”
Jenny gave her daughter a smile that was two parts grimace. “That’s great, sweetheart.” Richard had sectioned off a corner of the gallery and advertised a showing of Kim’s drawings under the name Kimberly Kale. More than half her stuff had sold on the first night. “Where’s Richard?”
“Mom, are you okay?”
Richard thumped onto the porch in the long overcoat he wore to hide the brace on his right knee. The left was completely prosthetic. He bent to peck her on the cheek.
“Hi, babe. Look what came in the mail.”
He reached into his coat pocket and brought out a fuzzy orange kitten no bigger than his palm. It mewled softly, blinking against the daylight. Richard handed it to Jenny.
“Oh, Richard, she’s beautiful.”
“He,” Richard said, watching the kitten press it’s wet nose into Jenny’s neck. “I thought we’d call him Fang.”
Jenny handed the kitten to Kim and put her hand out to Richard. Her face was tight with pain, but her eyes were calm.
“It’s time,” she said, rising. “Time to go meet our son.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sean Costello is a practicing physician who lives and works in Sudbury, Ontario, his home since 1981.
For information on previous and upcoming titles, visit the author’s website at www.seancostello.net
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Did you love Sandman? Then you should read The Cartoonist by Sean Costello!
Imagine this: You and two of your best friends have just been accepted into medical school, a coveted payoff after years of hard work and self-sacrifice. So you go on a road trip together, have a few drinks, a final fling before the long academic haul ahead. Young and bright, you feel the future surge beneath you like a sleek stallion, under your full control.
But a series of small lapses ends in tragedy and suddenly you're confronted with a terrible decision: Do you take responsbility for what you've done and risk losing everything? Or flee into the night unseen, with only God and your conscience as your jury?
Sixteen years ago, Scott Bowman faced this decision . . .
Now a successful psychiatrist with a loving family, Scott endures a judgement more terrible than any god or man could conceive. An ancient, derelict appears in his practice, an apparently senile old man with a remarkable artistic talent. Otherwise disconnected from the world around him, this strange little man quickly demonstrates an ability to foretell events through his drawings.
But before long Scott has to wonder: is this eldritch prophet predicting events? Or shaping them?
Also by Sean Costello
Also by Sean Costello
Here After
Captain Quad
The Cartoonist
Sandman Page 29
