We Live in Water (19 page)

BOOK: We Live in Water

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50. At the shelter, I gave her back the crutches. The woman knocked on the door. It opened. Mike and I stayed on the street, because that’s as close as we’re supposed to get. Maybe as close as we want to get. A gentle hand took the woman’s arm and she and her boy were led carefully inside.

Acknowledgments

These stories, published over the last seven years, had the good fortune of falling under the pens of some terrific editors. I want to single out two who are also friends, and who generously treat writers with the same exacting care they bring to their own work. Sam Ligon published a few of my stories at
Willow Springs
, read most of the others, and shared with me his laser-like ability to hone lines and find stories. Amy Grace Loyd displayed the same remarkable touch with prose that she does with people, and like other writers she’s edited at
Playboy
and
Byliner
, I’m better for having experienced both.

My deep thanks to two other good friends, my editor Cal Morgan, tireless champion of story writers, distracted novelists, and other misfits, and my agent Warren Frazier, the literary social worker who found homes for these troubled kids. Thanks also to a slew of fine editors and writers: Jordan Bass at
McSweeney’s
, Christopher Beha at
Harper’s
, Mary Morgan at
Fugue
, Kevin Sampsell, Joseph Mattson, Peter Wild, Tom Perrotta, Heidi Pitlor of
The Best American Short Stories
, and Dave Eggers and the crew of
The Best American Nonrequired Reading
. Thanks also to Anne Walter, Shawn Vestal, Dan Butterworth, and the staff of the Richard Hugo House in Seattle for the assignment that became “Don’t Eat Cat.”

About the Author

J
ESS
W
ALTER
is the author of six novels, including the bestsellers
Beautiful Ruins
and
The Financial Lives of the Poets
, the National Book Award finalist
The Zero
, and
Citizen Vince
, the winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction has appeared in
Harper’s
,
McSweeney’s
, and
Playboy
, as well as
The Best American Short Stories
and
The Best American Nonrequired Reading
. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

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Also by Jess Walter

FICTION

Beautiful Ruins

The Financial Lives of the Poets

The Zero

Citizen Vince

Land of the Blind

Over Tumbled Graves

NONFICTION

Ruby Ridge

Cover design by Jarrod Taylor

Main cover photograph © David Graham

Photograph of mountains © Spring Images/Alamy

“Anything Helps” appeared in
McSweeney’s
and in
The Best American Short Stories 2012
. “We Live in Water” appeared in
Playboy
. “Thief” appeared in
Harper’s
. “Can a Corn” appeared in
The Flash
and in
Forty Stories
. “Virgo” appeared in
Portland Noir
. “Helpless Little Things” appeared in
Playboy
. “Please” appeared in
Willow Springs
. “Don’t Eat Cat” appeared in
Byliner
and in
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012
. “The New Frontier” appeared in
Fugue
. “The Wolf and the Wild” appeared in
McSweeney’s
. “Wheelbarrow Kings” appeared in
The Speed Chronicles
. “Statistical Abstract for My Hometown of Spokane, Washington” appeared in
McSweeney’s
.

WE LIVE IN WATER. Copyright © 2013 by Jess Walter. 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 written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

EPub Edition February 2013 ISBN: 9780062099204

ISBN 978-0-06-192662-4

13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks

Canada

HarperCollins Canada