'What I Found in the Shed'

The second story in Tom Johnstone's collection Last Stop Wellsbourne is more upbeat than the first, which is odd given the subject matter is death. First published in ST #31, the story remains strong.

A boy called David finds a strange machine under a dust sheet in his dad's garden shed. The device is, Dad explained, a 'Quickener' - if you feed in a photo of a person it produces a copy. David's little sister Emily died, and since then his mother has stayed in her room. So he does the obvious and produces a new Emily. Unfortunately, as Dad explains, the copies are imperfect. They take the new Emily up to Mum's room, where further revelations await...

This is a strange horror story, one in which love creates the most improbable and disturbing events. Which is, in a way, a realistic theme despite the fantastical premise. A weird tale that is also poignant in its economical depiction of loss and how we cope, or fail to cope, with it.