In the Middle of Nowhere With Company: Tales From Far Beyond North

By Ruth Nestvold

Jordyn has brought the birds of sorrow with her to Rolynka, Alaska, where she hopes to start over after a tragic accident.

But in Rolynka, nothing is quite the way it seems, and the help of neighbors takes very strange forms.

"In the Middle of Nowhere with Company" is a short story of about 5000 words, or 20 pages. It is the first in the series "Tales From Far Beyond North."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Dragon Books
• Release date: Apr 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497750432

Ruth Nestvold

A former assistant professor of English in the picturesque town of Freiburg on the edge of the Black Forest, Ruth Nestvold has given up theory for imagination. The university career has been replaced by a small software localization business, and the Black Forest by the parrots of Bad Cannstatt, where she lives with her fantasy, her family, her books and no cats in a house with a turret. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous markets, including Asimov's, F&SF, Baen's Universe, Strange Horizons, Scifiction, and Gardner Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction. Her fiction has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of her novella "Looking Through Lace" won the "Premio Italia" award for best international work. Her novel Flamme und Harfe appeared in translation with the German imprint of Random House, Penhaligon, in 2009 and has since been translated into Dutch and Italian.

Book preview

In the Middle of Nowhere With Company

A Short Story in the Series Tales From Far Beyond North

by

Ruth Nestvold

Copyright 2009, 2012 by Ruth Nestvold

Cover by Britta Mack and Ruth Nestvold

Title image by ollyy, licensed through Shutterstock

All rights reserved

Credits:

In the Middle of Nowhere with Company was originally published in Abyss and Apex, April, 2009.

In the Middle of Nowhere With Company

Jordyn gazed out the window of the pickup-slash-taxi at the evening streets of Rolynka, Alaska, wondering if she'd made a mistake. The former gold-mining town on the Bering Sea looked like a clapboard nightmare, only friendly instead of frightening.

And she'd given up everything for this?

Her Eskimo driver peered through the windshield. I think you have brought the birds of sorrow with you.

Jordyn blinked and leaned forward to gaze in the same direction. A flock of dark birds — crows? ravens? — winged their way across a sky still as bright as during the middle of the day.

Of course, we always have birds of sorrow, the driver continued, nodding sagely. But there seem to be more than usual.

Jordyn felt her throat close at the woman's superstitious comments. If there were such a thing as birds of sorrow, she wouldn't be surprised if she'd brought them with her. Ditching her sorrows wasn't going to be as easy as running away to just south of the Arctic Circle.

The pickup truck pulled up in front of a large gray house built on piles and gravel fill to combat the effects of permafrost. A sign swinging