Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 34, No. 13 & 14, Winter 1989

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 34, No. 13 & 14, Winter 1989

Editor’s Notes by Cathleen Jordan

Welcome to our New Special Winter Double Issue, which takes the place of the Mid-December issue of previous years. It’s a collection of stories numerous enough, we hope, to take you through a number of those “long winter nights” mentioned on the cover, a combination of new and vintage tales.

We’re pleased, by the way, to welcome four authors to our pages for the first time. Geoffrey Hitchcock, whose delightful tale, “What’s Afoot?” opens the issue, hails from New Zealand. Now retired and able to devote more time to writing, he says, “I’ve worked at being an electrical engineer, a fruit farmer, and a scientist. And a sort of soldier.” Herb Henson, author of “Paquette’s Birthday,” is also familiar with the engineering game, and is also a soldier; he’s a technical writer for an electronics engineering firm and is a retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, was a Green Beret, and served in the Marine Corps. “I have,” he says, “a special affection for the Far East and the Pacific islands where I have spent a significant part of my life.” It shows, we think, in his charming treatment of Paquette’s friends and neighbors.

Both Mr. Henson’s and Ed Poole’s stories are their first published stories — rather remarkable, we think. Mr. Poole, author of “A Day at the Lake,” is a denizen of Louisiana and a computer systems programmer, his first job in that field being with the U.S. Navy. (Is there something about the military that creates writers? Hmmm.) And C. J. Hursch, author of “A Meaningful Relationship,” has a Ph.D. in psychology, is a former private investigator, writes novels and short stories, writes also on a variety of nonfiction subjects including computer books, and collects fossilized sharks’ teeth.

We’re glad to have all of them with us, and will pursue the military angle. (We’ve noticed a computer angle, too.) We’ll let you know...

Finally, we especially want to thank Carol Inouye for her delightful illustrations for this special issue. It’s unusual for us to assign all the art in one issue to one artist, but Carol rose to the occasion and then some. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

Cathleen Jordan, Editor

What’s Afoot? by Geoffrey Hitchcock

Percy paused in his work of digging up his old strawberry patch and leaned on his spade. An idea for a poem was coming into his mind. “The glory that was Greece gives way to Rome; the glory of the strawberries gives way to lowly spuds” — but before he could develop the theme, his wife came into the garden and at the same time he noticed something.

“Come over here,” he said. “I’ve just noticed that standing here you can see straight down Tauhou Street.”

“So you can!”

“There must be fifty houses in that street, and I don’t know a single person living in any of them. That’s terrible.”

But Pauli didn’t see anything terrible about it; as far as she could see it was perfectly normal. Why, they hardly knew their next door neighbors in Tihoi Street, so how could they be expected to know people in Tauhou Street, even if they did walk along it nearly every day.

“But don’t you see,” Percy persisted, “if we can’t be interested in our neighbors — find out what they think, what makes them tick — how can we expect nations to understand nations? What hope of peace?”

“Would you like to have smoko now, dear?” said Pauli.

Percy sighed and followed her into the house. A new poem was forming in his mind and he reached for his pencil and paper and wrote it down.