“Non-Zero Probabilities” up at Clarkesworld

My fantasy short story “Non-Zero Probabilities” is up in this month’s Clarkesworld Magazine.

I’ve been tempted to call this my “Urban Fantasy Triptych”, together with “The You Train” and “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, In The City Beneath the Still Waters” (forthcoming from Postscripts), since the first two are based on my life here in New York and the latter is based on some years that I spent in New Orleans. But I’m not actually sure I’m going to stop at three stories. In fact, I kind of feel like there’s at least one more New York story brewing in me — probably several, given my longtime love affair with this city. We’ll have to see how or if they come out.

Curiously, I’ve never felt any urge to write stories about the other cities I’ve lived in — Washington DC, Boston, Mobile AL. This may be because I never quite felt at home in those places. But oddly, I’ve written a story about Milan, which I visited for only two days, and I’ve felt the urge to write a story about Montreal, where I spent less than a week. Some cities just resonate, I guess.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt:

In the mornings, Adele girds herself for the trip to work as a warrior for battle. First she prays, both to the Christian god of her Irish ancestors and to the orishas of her African ancestors — the latter she is less familiar with, but getting to know. Then she takes a bath with herbs, including dried chickory and allspice, from a mixture given to her by the woman at the local botanica. (She doesn’t know Spanish well, but she’s getting to know that too. Today’s word is suerte.) Then, smelling vaguely of coffee and pumpkin pie, she layers on armor: the Saint Christopher medal her mother sent her, for protection on journeys. The hair-clasp she was wearing when she broke up with Larry, which she regards as the best decision of her life. On especially dangerous days, she wears the panties in which she experienced her first self-induced orgasm post-Larry. They’re a bit ragged after too many commercial laundromat washings, but still more or less sound. (She washes them by hand now, with Woollite, and lays them flat to dry.)

Go read.

Also, many thanks to Paul for the title! I suck at titles.