Watching the Music Dance

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Suze loves her music. She hides in it when her parents fight.

But when the fights end in divorce, the divorce brings an end to the music—obtained illegally by Suze's mother.

Now Nils, Suze's father, must quickly find a way to save his daughter's music—and her sanity—without breaking the law.

"Rusch creates a near-future which is horrifying in its plausibility, especially the no-supermen element, and the characters are so immediate; I finished this with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, and I suspect it would hit parents even harder. This is really powerful, and really strong."

—Libris Leonis

"A heartwarming and heartbreaking story of the prices a child and their parents make when radical technology is thrust upon a young girl."

—Functional Nerds

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jan 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386006190

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

Book preview

Watching the Music Dance

WATCHING THE MUSIC DANCE

KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH

WMG Publishing

CONTENTS

Watching the Music Dance

Newsletter sign-up

About the Author

Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WATCHING THE MUSIC DANCE

Upstairs, the big house. Her room, window seat, glass overlooking the back yard. The glint of his car pulling into the drive. Suzette pulls her dolly closer. Dolly—called Dolly (Mommy says that’s silly, everything needs a name. Her name’s Dolly, Suze says)—is just cloth, does nothing special. Doesn’t talk, doesn’t serve food, doesn’t cuddle. Just lets Suze cuddle, lets Suze be. Grams made Dolly, and Suze loves Dolly even though Mommy says Dolly’s not special at all.

Suze is special. Dolly’s not.

Car door slams, footsteps rapid. He’s mad. She cringes as he opens the screen door. It slams too.

Buries her head in Dolly’s yarn hair.

Account’s overdrawn again, he says, no hello, no how’re my special girls?, no where’s my Suze? Just something sharp and important. (Mommy and Daddy need to talk, hon, he’d say if she was downstairs. She tries to be upstairs when he comes home now, so she doesn’t see the look on his face—all pinched.) I’ve been monitoring the transactions. How many freakin’ lattes do you need in a day? They all go to your ass anyway.

Me? Mommy says. If you were monitoring, you shouldn’t’ve let it get overdrawn. And look at your own damn ass.

Suze tucks Dolly under one arm, climbs out of the window, goes to her special corner. Ignores the