Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

Credits

Jacket design by Richard L. Aquan

Jacket images: butterfly by Jan Cobb; eggshell © by Paul

Lindamarie Ambrose/Getty Images; snowflake by Floyd Dean/Getty Images;

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Some of the pieces appearing in this collection were first published elsewhere; permissions and copyright information as follows:

“Introduction” © 2006 by Neil Gaiman.

“A Study in Emerald” © 2003 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Shadows Over Baker Street.

“The Fairy Reel” © 2004 by Neil Gaiman. First published in The Faery Reel.

“October in the Chair” © 2002 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Conjunctions no. 39.

“The Hidden Chamber” © 2005 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Outsiders.

“Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” © 2004 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Gothic!

“The Flints of Memory Lane” © 1997 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Dancing with the Dark.

“Closing Time” © 2002 by Neil Gaiman. First published in McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, Issue 10.

“Going Wodwo” © 2002 by Neil Gaiman. First published in The Green Man.

“Bitter Grounds” © 2003 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Mojo: Conjure Stories.

“Other People” © 2001 by Neil Gaiman. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy Science Fiction 101, nos. 4 and 5.

“Keepsakes and Treasures” © 1999 by Neil Gaiman. First published in 999.

“Good Boys Deserve Favors” © 1995 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Overstreet’s Fan Magazine 1, no. 5.

“The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch” © 1998 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated #3.

“Strange Little Girls” © 2001 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Tori Amos’s Strange Little Girls tour book.

“Harlequin Valentine” © 1999 by Neil Gaiman. First published in the World Horror Convention Book, 1999.

“Locks” © 1999 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Silver Birch, Blood Moon.

“The Problem of Susan” © 2004 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Flights.

“Instructions” © 2000 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Wolf at the Door.

“How Do You Think It Feels?” © 1998 by Neil Gaiman. First published in In the Shadow of the Gargoyle.

“My Life” © 2002 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Sock Monkeys: 200 out of 1,863.

“Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot” © 1998 by Neil Gaiman. First published in The Art of the Vampire.

“Feeders and Eaters” © 1990 by Neil Gaiman. First published as a comic book in Revolver Horror Special. First published in this form in Keep Out the Night (2002).

“Diseasemaker’s Croup” © 2002 by Neil Gaiman. First published in The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric Discredited Diseases.

“In the End” © 1996 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Strange Kaddish.

“Goliath” by Neil Gaiman. Copyright © 1999 by Warner Bros. Studios, a division of Time Warner. First published online at www.whatisthematrix.com. Based on concepts by Larry and Andy Wachowski. Inspired by the motion picture The Matrix, written by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski.

“Pages Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky” © 2002 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Tori Amos’s Scarlet’s Walk tour book.

“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” © 2006. First publication.

“The Day the Saucers Came” © 2006. First published in the eZine SpiderWords 1, no. 2 (www.spiderwords.com).

“Sunbird” © 2005 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cell-phones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out.

“Inventing Aladdin” © by Neil Gaiman. First published in Swan Sister.

“The Monarch of the Glen” © 2004 by Neil Gaiman. First published in Legends II.

Frontispiece illustration: A panel from the comic strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland” by Winsor McCay, the New York Herald, September 29, 1907.

FRAGILE THINGS. Copyright © 2006 by Neil Gaiman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Microsoft Reader October 2006 ISBN 0-06-120722-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gaiman, Neil.

Fragile things: short fictions and wonders / Neil Gaiman.-1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-051522-5

ISBN-10: 0-06-051522-8