Cannibals in Love (35 page)
Authors: Mike Roberts
“Wow,” I said softly, staring hard into this empty space. I was surprised, and almost embarrassed, to find myself moved by it. When I turned back around, Cokie was standing out in the street with a taxi.
“You're not coming, are you?” she said with a sigh.
“No,” I answered. “Sorry, Cokie.”
“I'll pay for the cab, you know. I'll get you drunk at the bar.”
“I'm already drunk.”
“Yeah. Fuck. Me, too.” We laughed stupidly, feeling dizzy on our feet. “When am I going to see you again?” she asked, as she tethered herself to the open door.
“I don't know. Soon, I hope.”
Cokie didn't say anything. “Come here and give me a kiss goodbye, then.”
She stood up on her toes and kissed me twice, on the mouth, quickly. These funny, happy little pops. A wry smile on her face as I pressed the door closed. And Cokie was gone.
I watched as her taxicab floated off and disappeared. I thought not of Cokie's columns of light, but of a dome. With a glow emanating off the fronts and tops of buildings. With a ceiling that was vaulted high above the bridges. An invisible skein of atmospheric gases that was buoyant on the surface of the night.
I watched a small mass of color coming toward me across the intersection. Bouncing and bobbing in the flexed light. A group of joggers was suddenly standing there, running in place. The lights changed and the runners came bounding off the sidewalk. Rushing toward me as I stepped out onto the avenue to meet them. Their bare legs and billowing breath, huffed and clutched, as they ran right through me. Changing sides, and disappearing. And, for a fleeting moment, I could swear that there was silence. Left alone in the great city tableau, once more.
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With gratitude for, and acknowledgment of, the help I received in finishing this book, I wish to thank: Soumeya Roberts; John Knight; Andrew Neel; Luke Meyer; Nait Rey; Jessica Arcangel; Laura Heberton; Sara Eklund; Adam Khatib; Ethan Palmer; Tom Davis; SeeThink Films; FSG and FSG Originals; Writers House; Hanly Banks; Annie McGreevy; Daniel Kine; Tracey Ennis; Matthew Schnipper; Kevin Donahue; Lindsay Nash; the Roberts and Purnell families; and last, best, most, Molly Purnell.
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Mike Roberts
is a novelist and screenwriter from Buffalo, New York. His first screenplay,
King Kelly
, premiered at the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival, and his second, an adaptation of Brad Land's memoir
Goat
, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Cannibals in Love
is his first novel. You can sign up for email updates
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CONTENTS
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Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2016 by Mike Roberts
All rights reserved
First edition, 2016
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roberts, Mike, 1980â author.
Title: Cannibals in love: a novel / Mike Roberts.
Description: First edition. | New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015048946Â |Â ISBN 9780374536633 (paperback)Â |Â ISBN 9780374715113 (e-book)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / Urban Life. | GSAFD: Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3618.O316795 C36 2016Â |Â DDC 813/.6âdc23
LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015048946
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Cannibals in Love
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.