Lost Everything (29 page)

It is too much. It is not enough. There are not enough pages, and there was never enough time—I should have known that, but I am still trying. I am trying to reach you, wherever you are, wherever you have gone, because we all have to find each other somehow, even if the words are all that is left when we do. Perhaps now we can tell you the things we could not say then. How much we love you. How we are sorry. How we know it will get better, even if we are only here to see it through you.

Good-bye. Hello.

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

To The Reverend Drew Bunting, for so much guidance. To Chuck Wall and Tara Duffy, for taking the canoe trip with me. To Laura Bean Kelley, for all the stories about mental hospitals. To the Pasquales, for telling me a few things about Binghamton. To James Leva, for writing the tune. To Jacob Curtz, Joseph DeJarnette, and Liz Toffey, for making the book happen. To Cameron McClure and Liz Gorinsky, for making the book better. To Central New York and Pennsylvania. To Steph. To Leo.

T
OR
B
OOKS BY
B
RIAN
F
RANCIS
S
LATTERY

Spaceman Blues

Liberation

Lost Everything

About the Author

Brian Francis Slattery was born and raised in upstate New York. He is an editor for the U.S. Institute of Peace and the
New Haven Review
. He is the author of
Spaceman Blues
and
Liberation,
and is also a musician. He lives near New Haven, Connecticut.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

LOST EVERYTHING

Copyright © 2012 by Brian Francis Slattery

All rights reserved.

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Slattery, Brian Francis.

Lost everything / Brian Francis Slattery. — 1st ed.

          p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

ISBN 978-0-7653-2912-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4299-8655-7 (e-book)

1.  Regression (Civilization)—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PS3619.L375L67 2012

813'.6—dc23

2011033204

e-ISBN 9781429986557

First Edition: April 2012