The Questing Mind

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

J. Reed Brasher knows he has forgotten something important. A lot of somethings, actually. The memory of his entire life slips through his grasp save for bits and pieces. Age, they tell him. And at 90, maybe he should believe them.

But he doesn’t. Because he remembers something. Something that tells him he should never have lost his memory in the first place.

Chosen by Tangent Magazine as one of the top ten science fiction stories of 1998.

“...what a writer [Rusch] is. Her subject matter may cover the normal topics of science fiction and other genres, but the main memory you take away is the way she approaches the story and her unique vision for the characters.”
—The Baryon Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Apr 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458126191

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.

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The Questing Mind

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Published by WMG Publishing

Copyright © 2011 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Cover art copyright © Andrey Ososhchev/Dreamstime

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The Questing Mind

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

In memory of Kathryn Rusch

He tries to remember.

The nurses don't understand that. They think it odd that he requests audio tapes of the books he has written, videos of the interviews he has given, and photograph albums of times past. The nurses also give him three-d moving pictures of his last few years, pictures so tiny they rest in the palm of his hand. In them, the people turn like toy dolls, but he cannot feel their feet against his skin. Outside the door, he hears the nurses whispering, Sad old man. He's got nothing left to live for, so he lives in his past.

Only he doesn't have any memories except inconsequential ones: the runny eggs he had for breakfast, the plot of the crime drama he watched the night before on the wide screen television placed at the perfect distance from his bed. He has a superficial knowledge of everything he has done, like a back-of-the-book bio sheet written about someone else:

J. Reed Brasher, novelist, playwright, and essayist, born 1920 in Camden, New Jersey to physician Paul Brasher and his wife Mary. Published his first novel, Golden Sunset, in 1945. Wrote sixteen Broadway plays, including the Tony Award winning Stations in the Sky (1960). Published five books of essays, the last an autobiographical sketch. Married Olive Franklin in 1942, fathered two daughters, Mary and Paula. List of publications (including all 55 novels) follows.

But the memories are gone, stolen an incident at a time. He has noticed the first one missing on his ninetieth birthday when his daughter, Paula, asked him to recite her favorite bedtime story to his great-grandson. He did not remember telling bedtime