Twenty Questions
a collection of short and very short stories
by Paul McComas Collections of stories are always the hardest for me to review; I have to pick one story to talk about and try to figure out what binds all of the stories into an anthology. In this case, most of the stories take place in Chicago. The majority have a sexual theme. Two are connected more closely- they are two sides of one story. Some of the stories were written earlier than others and take place ten or twenty years ago, which is disconcerting.
OK, that's my attempt to bind the stories, now for one particular story.
Roomie is the only science fiction story of the lot. The average human sheds its own weight in skin cells every four years. And four years to the day after Jane Weevador moves into an apartment, she sees her own discarded skin accumulate into a vaguely humanoid figure. She feels somewhat obligated to it, and takes care of it as though it were a child. Taking care of the thing requires more and more of Jane's time and life, and so in the end she decides to destroy it.
Happy reading.
