Ma Qui

"Ma Qui" is a 1991 fantasy/horror story by American writer Alan Brennert. It was first published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Plot summary

After an American soldier is killed in the Viet Nam War, he must find his way to the afterlife — if the ma qui, Vietnamese "angry ghosts", will let him.

The protagonist of this short story is William Anthony Collins, an American soldier who was killed while attempting to rescue his friend from snipers. Because his body was taken by the Viet Cong before his fellow soldiers could recover it, he is unable to progress to the next stage of the afterlife and wanders about Vietnam as a ghost. While traveling a trail following the Song Cai, he encounters a spirit house inhabited an old man named Phan Van Duc, who was killed by a tiger, and Phan's daughter Chau, who died childless.

After departing from the spirit house, Collins meets his old friend DePaul, floating above a river and wracked with pain. DePaul tells Collins that he (DePaul) cannot escape his predicament unless a sick child is drowned in the river as an offering. Collins, thoroughly skeptical of the matter, agrees, but only because he thinks that DePaul is being hysterical and that showing him the child will snap him out of it. After briefly getting foiled by a mirror and a doorway lined with red paper (placed to ward off spirits), Collins abducts a young boy from a local village, surprised he can pass through walls but still be able to hold the boy.

Collins brings the boy to DePaul, who then tearfully drowns the boy. Horrified, Collins attempts to rescue the boy, but it is too late. Upon seeing DePaul disappear and the ghost of the boy emerge, Collins realizes why he was able to carry the child: he is in fact a ma qui, an evil spirit who brings death and misfortune. He visits the spirit house from before, but Phan only seems puzzled, while Chau delights in his evil deeds and calls him "beloved demon", prompting Collins to run away. The story ends with Collins still wandering about Vietnam, struggling to prevent himself from slipping further into evil.

Reception

"Ma Qui" won the 1991 Nebula Award for Best Short Story.^[1] Kirkus Reviews called it "wrenching".^[2]

References

^ 1991 Nebula Awards, at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved September 21, 2018
^ BEST NEW HORROR 3 by Stephen Jones, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published July 15, 1992; archived online May 20, 2010; retrieved September 21, 2018

v t e Nebula Award for Best Short Story
1966–1980	""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison (1966) "The Secret Place" by Richard McKenna (1967) "Aye, and Gomorrah" by Samuel R. Delany (1968) "The Planners" by Kate Wilhelm (1969) "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg (1970) "Good News from the Vatican" by Robert Silverberg (1972) "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ (1973) "Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death" by James Tiptree Jr. (1974) "The Day Before the Revolution" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1975) "Catch That Zeppelin!" by Fritz Leiber (1976) "A Crowd of Shadows" by Charles L. Grant (1977) "Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison (1978) "Stone" by Edward Bryant (1979) "giANTS" by Edward Bryant (1980)
1981–2000	"Grotto of the Dancing Deer" by Clifford D. Simak (1981) "The Bone Flute" by Lisa Tuttle (refused, 1982) "A Letter from the Clearys" by Connie Willis (1983) "The Peacemaker" by Gardner Dozois (1984) "Morning Child" by Gardner Dozois (1985) "Out of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress (1986) "Tangents" by Greg Bear (1987) "Forever Yours, Anna" by Kate Wilhelm (1988) "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge" by James K. Morrow (1989) "Ripples in the Dirac Sea" by Geoffrey A. Landis (1990) "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson (1991) "Ma Qui" by Alan Brennert (1992) "Even the Queen" by Connie Willis (1993) "Graves" by Joe Haldeman (1994) "A Defense of the Social Contracts" by Martha Soukup (1995) "Death and the Librarian" by Esther Friesner (1996) "A Birthday" by Esther Friesner (1997) "Sister Emily's Lightship" by Jane Yolen (1998) "Thirteen Ways to Water" by Bruce Holland Rogers (1999) "The Cost of Doing Business" by Leslie What (2000)
2001–2020	"macs" by Terry Bisson (2001) "The Cure for Everything" by Severna Park (2002) "Creature" by Carol Emshwiller (2003) "What I Didn't See" by Karen Joy Fowler (2004) "Coming to Terms" by Eileen Gunn (2005) "I Live With You" by Carol Emshwiller (2006) "Echo" by Elizabeth Hand (2007) "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler (2008) "Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (2009) "Spar" by Kij Johnson (2010) "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison / "Ponies" by Kij Johnson (2011) "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu (2012) "Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard (2013) "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" by Rachel Swirsky (2014) "Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon (2015) "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong (2016) "Seasons of Glass and Iron" by Amal El-Mohtar (2017) "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse (2018) "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by P. Djèlí Clark (2019) "Give the Family My Love" by A. T. Greenblatt (2020)
2021–present	"Open House on Haunted Hill" by John Wiswell (2021) "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather" by Sarah Pinsker (2022) "Rabbit Test" by Samantha Mills (2023) "Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200" by R. S. A. Garcia (2024)

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