You Are Not a Stranger Here - Adam Haslett [79]
From her coat pocket, Elizabeth takes the folded piece of notepaper on which she’s kept her list of questions. She pauses, then reading from the page, asks in a quiet voice, “Did you ever think you meant more to your mother than her own life?”
It’s some nonsense she’s written down, Ted says to himself. He still can’t figure out how she got here. He’ll have to drive her back.
“I’ll just read them, Ted, and then you can . . . What is your mother’s name?”
The roads will be bad by now; he doesn’t have snow tires. It will take time.
“Mrs. Maynard—”
“Do you exist as a judgment of her? What does it feel like to be in her arms?”
Ted would like her to be quiet now. There is so much to think about. For ten minutes he stood by the bathroom door, calling softly, “Are you all right?” but Lauren said nothing, and all he could think of was her disappointment.
“Can you see your mother’s face, or is it so familiar you don’t see it? Do you feel that you know her?”
Elizabeth looks up and sees tears running from Ted’s impassive eyes. She puts aside her list and lifts her hands to his cheeks. At her touch, his mouth trembles and he starts to sob.
You and all the inheritors of wealth who think life is a matter of perfected sentiment. You are wrong.
Elizabeth is exhausted. She does not argue. The lights in the room stream into her eyes like refulgent dawn. At last, she feels the warmth of her son’s tears in the palms of her hands.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOR THEIR SUPPORT during the writing of this book, I would like to thank the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Michener/Copernicus Society of America, and the MacDowell Colony. I would also like to thank my editor Nan Talese, my agent Ira Silverberg, Frank Conroy, Marilynne Robinson, and Connie Brothers at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Sandy McClatchy at The Yale Review, and Adrienne Brodeur and Samantha Schnee at Zoetrope for their encouragement. For helping to improve various stories in this book, I owe thanks to Allan Gurganus, Nick Sywak, Minna Proctor, Justin Tussing, and Jacob Molyneaux. Finally, for making sure I left the apartment now and again, my thanks to Adam Hickey and David Grewal.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADAM HASLETT is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has appeared in Zoetrope All-Story, The Yale Review, BOMB magazine, and National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts series. He has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award and has received fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the Michener/Copernicus Society of America. He is currently a student at Yale Law School.
PUBLISHED BY NAN A. TALESE
an imprint of Doubleday
a division of Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036
DOUBLEDAY is a trademark of Doubleday a division of Random House, Inc.
Some of the stories in this book have appeared, in different form, in the following publications: “Notes to My Biographer” in Zoetrope All-Story, “Devotion” in The Yale Review, “War’s End” in BOMB magazine, “The Beginnings of Grief” in The James White Review, and “Reunion” in The Alembic.
The quote that appears in the chapter My Father’s Business is from the novel Affliction by Russell Banks.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, 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.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haslett, Adam. You are not a stranger here / Adam Haslett.
p. cm.
I. Title.
PS3608.A85 Y68 2002
813'.6—dc21
2001054839
Copyright © 2002 by Adam Haslett
All Rights Reserved
eISBN: 978-1-4000-7562-1
v3.0