The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson [134]
Over the megaphone, Lucy shouted, “Cut,” and the children immediately broke from Annie and ran toward the warmth of the trailer. Annie stood in the road and watched as Lucy walked quickly toward her, the light of the fire reflected on her face. She stood absolutely still as Lucy, arms outstretched, came closer and closer. Lucy wrapped Annie in a hug and then turned her around to face the fire burning against the tree line. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Lucy asked, her head resting on Annie’s shoulder, and Annie stared at the steady flickering of the flames. She marveled at the chaos that surrounded her, and she did not for even a second fear the conflagration that threatened to overtake her. It was quite beautiful, she admitted, allowing herself to fully take in the sight, perhaps understanding her parents for the first time. She looked into the distance and smiled, held on to Lucy, and watched the fire, which seemed as though it would last forever, that no amount of effort would ever snuff it out.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the following:
Leigh Anne Couch and Griff Fodder-wing Wilson, for being my family.
Julie Barer and Lee Boudreaux, for all of their work in helping me make this book. I cannot imagine the novel without their input and support.
Ann Patchett, for her limitless friendship and for reading early drafts of the book and shifting it toward the places it needed to go.
Mom, Dad, Kristen, and Wes, and the Wilson, Couch, Fuselier, Baltz, Huffman, and James families for their love and kindness.
The Kimmel-Harding Nelson Center and Yaddo, where I wrote portions of this book.
The University of the South and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, for their financial support during the writing of this book and the vibrant community this school provides.
Ecco, especially Abby Holstein, for all their work in getting this book out to the world.
All of my friends, especially Padgett Powell, Leah Stewart, Cecily Parks, Sam Esquith, Bryan Smith, and Caki Wilkinson.
About the Author
KEVIN WILSON is the author of the story collection Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/HarperPerennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere, and has appeared in four volumes of the New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best anthology. He has received fellowships from the Mac-Dowell Colony, Yaddo, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his son, Griff, where he teaches fiction at the University of the South and helps run the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
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Also by Kevin Wilson
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth
Credits
Cover design by Allison Saltzman
Cover illustration by Julie Morstad
Cover photograph of frame and wall © by Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE FAMILY FANG. Copyright © 2011 by Kevin Wilson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express