Vanitas

By James S. Dorr

When he arrived at the New England town of Vanitas, all that Caleb Rushton wanted was an escape from the life of a seaman. What he found there included murder, a ghost-like apparition, a multi-layered trail of deception, and a need for his carpentry skills to help in the building of a gigantic church organ powered by steam.

A great blend of steampunk and horror from our Orbits sci-fi/fantasy short story line.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Untreed Reads
• Release date: Jul 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781611871388

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Vanitas

By James S. Dorr

Copyright 2011 by James S. Dorr

Cover Copyright 2011 by Dara England and Untreed Reads Publishing

The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (Untreed Reads) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.

First published in ALFRED HTCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, January 1996, and has been reprinted in the author’s collection STRANGE MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE (Dark Regions, 2001).

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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to the living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Other Titles in the Orbits Short Story Line

Creative Accountancy for Beginners by Anne Brooke

Flying Solo by Wade J. McMahan

Keep Your Friends Close by K.G. McAbee

New Normal by Jeffrey Ricker

The Girl in the Painting by Anne Brooke

http://www.untreedreads.com

Vanitas

By James S. Dorr

Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas.

(Ecclesiastes I:2)

Caleb Rushton came from the sea, from a world where sail—and the seamen needed to mount ships’ rigging—was fast giving way to the devils of soot and steam. He traveled west from his home port of Boston through Worcester and Springfield, until he came to the town of Vanitas on the east edge of the Berkshire Mountains. He liked the way the air smelled there, the way the hollyhocks bloomed in the spring, and, though he had long since lost faith in religion, he