Dan Simmons - Hard as Nails

Kurtz looked at his parole officer's unconscious face for a long moment and then laid his hand on the top of the nearest machine. It had been one week exactly since the two of them had been shot together in the parking garage.

His cell phone vibrated in his sport coat pocket Kurtz answered in a whisper. "Yeah?"

"Joe?" It was Arlene.

"Yeah."

"Joe, I didn't want to bother you, and I've hesitated to ask, but Gail needs to know about Friday…"

"Friday," said Kurtz.

"Yes… Friday evening," said Arlene. "It's…"

"It's Rachel's birthday party," said Kurtz. "She'll be fifteen. Yeah, I'll be there. Tell Gail that I wouldn't miss it."

He disconnected, not interested in hearing whatever Arlene was going to say next. Then he touched Peg O'Toole's shoulder under the thin hospital gown and went back to the uncomfortable chair, leaning forward so it didn't press against his bruised back.

Sitting that way, leaning forward, hands loosely clasped, speaking softly only to the nurse when she came in from time to time to check on her patient, Kurtz waited there with O'Toole the rest of the day.

Since his first-published short story won the Rod Serling Memorial Award in the 1982 Twilight Zone magazine short fiction contest, DAN SIMMONS has won some of the top awards in the science fiction, horror, fantasy, and thriller genres, as well as honors for his mainstream fiction. His books include the Joe Kurtz novels Hardcase and Hard Freeze , as well as the science fiction epic Ilium . He lives along the Front Range of Colorado, where he is currently at work on a new Joe Kurtz novel.