Gryphon_ New and Selected Stories - Charles Baxter [0]
FICTION
The Soul Thief
Saul and Patsy
The Feast of Love
Believers
Shadow Play
A Relative Stranger
First Light
Through the Safety Net
Harmony of the World
POETRY
Imaginary Paintings and Other Poems
PROSE
The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
Burning Down the House
AS EDITOR
A William Maxwell Portrait
(with Edward Hirsch and Michael Collier)
The Business of Memory: The Art of Remembering in an Age of Forgetting
Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life (with Peter Turchi)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Charles Baxter
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Owing to limitations of space, all acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published material may be found at the end of the volume.
The following stories originally appeared in book form: “Harmony of the World,” “Horace and Margaret’s Fifty-second,” and “The Would-be Father” in Harmony of the World (University of Missouri Press, 1984, and subsequently published by Vintage Books in 1997); “The Eleventh Floor,” “Gryphon,” “Surprised by Joy,” and “Winter Journey” in Through the Safety Net (Viking, 1985, and subsequently published by Vintage Books in 1998); and “The Cures for Love,” “Flood Show,” “Kiss Away,” and “The Next Building I Plan to Bomb” in Believers (Pantheon Books, 1997).
Some stories were previously published in the following: “The Old Murderer” and “Royal Blue” in The American Scholar; “Poor Devil” in The Atlantic; “Ghosts” and “Mr. Scary” in Ploughshares; and “The Cousins” and “The Winner” in Tin House.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baxter, Charles, [date]
Gryphon : new and selected stories / Charles Baxter.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37956-6
I. Title.
PS3552.A854G79 2011 813′.54—dc22 2010013785
www.pantheonbooks.com
Jacket photograph: Hartwig House, Truro, 1976, © Joel Meyerowitz, Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, N.Y.
Jacket design by Carol Devine Carson
v3.1
FOR DAN FRANK
AND IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL STEINBERG
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
The Would-be Father
Horace and Margaret’s Fifty-second
Harmony of the World
Winter Journey
Surprised by Joy
The Eleventh Floor
Gryphon
Fenstad’s Mother
Westland
Shelter
Snow
The Disappeared
Kiss Away
The Next Building I Plan to Bomb
Flood Show
The Cures for Love
Poor Devil
Ghosts
Royal Blue
The Old Murderer
Mr. Scary
The Cousins
The Winner
About the Author
Permissions Acknowledgments
The Would-be Father
WIPING OFF THE kitchen counter after dinner, Burrage happened to glance at the window over the sink and saw a woman’s face outside, peering in. The face had an inquisitive but friendly expression. It belonged to Mrs. Schultz from across the street, who tended to wander around the Heritage Condominium complex in the early evening while under the influence of powerful medications prescribed for her after-dinner and bedtime pains.
“Hi, Mrs. Schultz,” Burrage said, waving a sponge. “Are you all right? Do you know where you are?”
“I think so,” she said, waving back. Her gray hair was bundled at the top of her head, and the lines around her mouth rose when she smiled. “I think I know where I am, if I’m across the street and if you are who I think you are. I wanted to see that boy of yours. Also, I’m thirsty. Can you pass a glass of water to me through this window?”
“I can’t, Mrs. Schultz,” Burrage said. Looking boyish and preoccupied, as was usual for him, he pointed at the window. “Screens. And Gregory’s already in his pajamas. See how late it’s getting?” Mrs. Schultz glanced