Shandy

What do you love when the thing you love can become anything? In this strange, seductive 1950s short story, Holman arrives at Nancy Tanner's door carrying hope and jealousy. The object of her affection isn't entirely human, isn't entirely animal. Shandy transforms endlessly - teddy bear, lion, ape - yet something beneath these shapes remains unknowable. Nancy adores her mutable companion, but what is he truly? Goulart crafts a disquieting fairy tale about love, identity, and the terrifying possibility that devotion might rest on a foundation of uncertainty. The science fiction premise (a shapeshifting companion, possibly alien, possibly something else entirely) serves a quietly devastating meditation on what it means to care for something that cannot be pinned down. Read it in one sitting, then think about it for days.