Mockingbird

Informationen zum Autor Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter and game designer. He's the author of many novels, including but not limited to: Blackbirds, Atlanta Burns, Zer0es, and the YA Heartland series. He is the author of the upcoming Star Wars: Aftermath, and is co-writer of the the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus. He was a finalist for the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer. He currently lives in the forests of Pennsyltucky with wife, son, and red dog. Klappentext Miriam is trying. Really! she is. But this whole "settling down thing" that Louis has going for her just isn't working out. Still! she's keeping her psychic ability--to see when and how someone is going to die just by touching them--in check. But even that feels wrong somehow. Original. Mockingbird ONE SHIP BOTTOM Boop. Suntan lotion. Boop. Pecan sandies. Boop. Tampons, beach towel, postcards, and, mysteriously, a can of green beans. Miriam grabs each item with a black-gloved hand. Runs the item over the scanner. Sometimes, she looks down and stares into the winking red laser. She’s not supposed to do that. But she does it anyway, a meager act of rebellion in her brand-new life. Maybe, she thinks, the ruby beam will burn away that part of her brain that makes her who she is. Turn her into a mule-kicked window-licker, happy in oblivion, pressed up against the walls of her Plexiglas enclosure. “Miss?” The word drags her out of the mind’s eye theater and back to checkout. “Jesus, what?” she asks. “Well, are you going to scan that?” Miriam looks down. Sees she’s still holding the can of green beans. Del Monte. She idly considers braining the woman standing there in her beachy muumuu, the worn pattern of hibiscus flowers barely covering a sludgy bosom that’s half lobster red and half wood-grub white. Two halves marked by the Rubicon of a terrible tan line. Instead, Miriam swipes the can across the scanner with a too-sweet smile. Boop. “Is something wrong with your hands?” the woman asks. She sounds concerned. Miriam waggles one finger— a jumping inchworm dance. The black leather creaks and squeaks. “Oh, these? I have to wear these. You know how women at restaurants have to wear hairnets? For public health safety? I gotta wear these gloves if I’m going to work here. Rules and regulations. Last thing I want to do is cause a hepatitis outbreak, am I right? I got hep A, B, C, and the really bad one, X.” Then, just to sell it, Miriam holds up her hand for a high five. The woman does not seize the high-five opportunity. Rather, the blood drains from her face, her sunburned skin gone swiftly pale. Miriam wonders what would happen if she told the truth: Oh, it’s no big deal, but when I touch people, this little psychic movie plays in my head and I witness how and when they’re going to die. So I’ve been wearing these gloves so I don’t have to see that kind of crazy shit anymore. Or the deeper truth behind even that: I wear them because Louis wants me to wear them. Not that the gloves provide perfect protection against the visions. Nobody but Louis is touching her anywhere else, though. She keeps covered up. Even in the heat. Behind the woman is a line seven, eight people deep. They all hear what Miriam says. She’s not quiet. Two of the customers— a doughy gentleman in a parrot-laden shirt and a young girl with an ill-contained rack of softball-sized fake tits— shimmy out of the queue and leave their goods on the empty checkout two rows down. Still, the woman hangs tough. With a sour face, she pulls a credit card out of nowhere—Miriam imagines she withdraws it fr...

Product details

• Authors: Chuck Wendig, Chuck Wendig
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2015
• EAN: 9781481448673
• ISBN: 978-1-4814-4867-3
• No. of pages: 352
• Series: Miriam Black; Miriam Black
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense