Losing Dolly

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Annabeth loses her dolly three days after her daddy died. Little Annabeth searches everywhere, but she can't understand why God would take away her best friend so soon after taking her daddy. And so close to Christmas. To heal, she must discover why dolly disappeared and find a reason to believe in God once more.

A heart-rending story about a child's love, loss and faith.

"Rusch's short fiction is golden."

—Kansas City Star

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Aug 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781540154026

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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THREE DAYS after Daddy died, Dolly disappeared. Annabeth thought she could live without Daddy or Dolly, but not both. Daddy hadn’t been home a lot—he had his own flock to attend, Momma said—but when he was there, the whole house centered on him.

Dolly, though, Dolly belonged to Annabeth and nobody else.

And Dolly was gone too.

Annabeth wasn’t sure how to look for Dolly. She wasn’t supposed to call attention to herself. She was supposed to be a good little girl and stay quiet, be polite to the guests, and never ever cry. They laid Daddy out in the parlor—his body, anyway, her brother Kyle had said—and he didn’t look much like Daddy any more. More like Daddy if they’d made Daddy into a china doll like Dolly. His skin was all white and gray, and his mustache drooped. Daddy’s mustache never drooped, not before he died. Daddy’s mustache twitched and wiggled and hid his smile. His eyes twinkled and his mouth curved up, making the mustache curve too.

Daddy would say, Annabeth, you are my joy, and he’d scoop her in his arms, and hold her too tight, then set her down and make her giggle. When she giggled, he twitched