Shiloh and Other Stories - Bobbie Ann Mason [0]
Copyright © 1982 by Bobbie Ann Mason
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Modern Library, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
MODERN LIBRARY and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This work was originally published in 1982 by Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. This edition is published by arrangement with the author.
This page constitutes a continuation of this copyright page.
“Shiloh,” “Offerings,” “Nancy Culpepper,” and “Third Monday” appeared originally in The New Yorker. “Detroit Skyline, 1949,” “A New-Wave Format,” “Drawing Names,” and “The Retreat” appeared originally in Atlantic Monthly. “Still Life with Watermelon” first appeared in Redbook. “Old Things” first appeared in somewhat different form in The North American Review. “The Climber” first appeared in the Washington Post Magazine. “Residents and Transients” first appeared in New Boston Review. “The Ocean” first appeared in somewhat different form in Bloodroot under the title “Recreation.” “Graveyard Day” first appeared in somewhat different form in Ascent.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Mason, Bobbie Ann.
Shiloh and other stories / Bobbie Ann Mason.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-80632-1
1. Kentucky—Social life and customs—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3563.A7877 S49 2001
813′.54—dc21 2001019418
Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
SHILOH
THE ROOKERS
DETROIT SKYLINE, 1949
OFFERINGS
STILL LIFE WITH WATERMELON
OLD THINGS
DRAWING NAMES
THE CLIMBER
RESIDENTS AND TRANSIENTS
THE RETREAT
THE OCEAN
GRAVEYARD DAY
NANCY CULPEPPER
LYING DOGGO
A NEW-WAVE FORMAT
THIRD MONDAY
Permissions Credits
Dedication
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
SHILOH
Leroy Moffitt’s wife, Norma Jean, is working on her pectorals. She lifts three-pound dumbbells to warm up, then progresses to a twenty-pound barbell. Standing with her legs apart, she reminds Leroy of Wonder Woman.
“I’d give anything if I could just get these muscles to where they’re real hard,” says Norma Jean. “Feel this arm. It’s not as hard as the other one.”
“That’s ’cause you’re right-handed,” says Leroy, dodging as she swings the barbell in an arc.
“Do you think so?”
“Sure.”
Leroy is a truckdriver. He injured his leg in a highway accident four months ago, and his physical therapy, which involves weights and a pulley, prompted Norma Jean to try building herself up. Now she is attending a body-building class. Leroy has been collecting temporary disability since his tractor-trailer jackknifed in Missouri, badly twisting his left leg in its socket. He has a steel pin in his hip. He will probably not be able to drive his rig again. It sits in the backyard, like a gigantic bird that has flown home to roost. Leroy has been home in Kentucky for three months, and his leg is almost healed, but the accident frightened him and he does not want to drive any more long hauls. He is not sure what to do next. In the meantime, he makes things from craft kits. He started by building a miniature log cabin from notched Popsicle sticks. He varnished it and placed it on the TV set, where it remains. It reminds him of a rustic Nativity scene. Then he tried string art (sailing ships on black velvet), a macramé owl kit, a snap-together B-17 Flying Fortress, and a lamp made out of a model truck, with a light fixture screwed in the top of the cab. At first the kits were diversions, something to kill time, but now he is thinking about building a full-scale log house from a kit. It would be considerably cheaper than building a regular house, and besides, Leroy has grown to appreciate how things are put together. He has begun to realize that in all the years he was on the road he never took time to examine anything. He was always flying past scenery.
“They won’t let you build a log cabin in any of the new subdivisions,”