The second story in Tom Johnstone's collection Last Stop Wellsbourne is more upbeat than the first, which is odd given the subject matter is death. First published in ST #31, the story remains strong.
A boy called David finds a strange machine under a dust sheet in his dad's garden shed. The device is, Dad explained, a 'Quickener' - if you feed in a photo of a person it produces a copy. David's little sister Emily died, and since then his mother has stayed in her room. So he does the obvious and produces a new Emily. Unfortunately, as Dad explains, the copies are imperfect. They take the new Emily up to Mum's room, where further revelations await...
This is a strange horror story, one in which love creates the most improbable and disturbing events. Which is, in a way, a realistic theme despite the fantastical premise. A weird tale that is also poignant in its economical depiction of loss and how we cope, or fail to cope, with it.
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