The Doctor's Dreams

Four novellas in this 2nd edition of The Doctor's Dreams explore inner lives when faced with sudden change and uncertainty.

The Doctor's Dreams
On New Year's Eve, Doctor Marsha Arzt has mysteriously gone missing somewhere between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Looking for clues, her brother discovers she kept a secret dream diary. Her nightmares reveal a crisis of conscience, and seem to predict a future he isn't able to face alone in the wee hours of the morning.

Mosquito Song: Dreams in Old San Juan
After an unborn baby's mysterious death, a New York City molecular biologist travels to Puerto Rico to investigate. Fears of a new pandemic mosquito virus haunt the scientist's plans, and her dreams. Her next DNA experiments reveal a personal stake in a future she is not ready to accept.

The Finest Mask
In a dystopian, disease-ridden society, a perfect gene holds the cure. What if the Europeans who came to North America 300 years ago had been susceptible to epidemics, but the 500 Indigenous nations' people were not? This is the alternate history world of "The Finest Mask", where disease has disfigured nearly all of Europe's population. A gene hunter travels from London to New York City in search of an illusive gene for perfect skin, to prevent the ravages of infections and the disfiguring scars.

After the Layoff
Chemist Eve Wissen feels like a decapitated, single head of household after a surprise layoff. A workaholic left adrift in New York City, she adds up the unemployment facts. Numbers are no longer her friends. Her sudden freedom thrusts her into a void where she scrambles to find a way to support her two sons, and reinvent meaning for her life.