Thunderstruck & Other Stories (24 page)

“What for?” asked Wes.

She rubbed her nose absentmindedly. “Funny smell. What is that?”

Not medicine nor illness: the iridescent polish the manicurist had applied to Helen’s toes.

In order to wake up every morning, thought Wes, he’d convinced himself of a lot of things that weren’t true. He could feel some of his beliefs crumble like old plaster—life in Paris, walking the streets with Helen in his arms, revenge on Didier, even Dr. Delarche’s crush. Of course they would go back to the States, where Kit was, they would talk to experts, they would find a facility, they would bring Helen home as soon as they could, where she would be visited by Addie of the braces and the clarinet, and boys from her school. She might never walk again. But her body would persist. It was broken but not failing. She was theirs for the rest of their lives, and then Kit would inherit her. That was what Laura had seen from the first day, and it had crushed her, and she was only just now shifting that weight from her chest.

Helen painted. That was real. He knew his own brain, what it could make up and what it couldn’t. He looked at his wife, whom he loved, whom he looked forward to convincing, and felt as though he were diving headfirst into happiness. It was a circus act, a perilous one. Happiness was a narrow tank. You had to make sure you cleared the lip.

Enormous thanks to Henry Dunow, Susan Kamil, Noah Eaker, Ann Patchett, Duchess Goldblatt, Paul Lisicky; to the American Academy in Berlin, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the Bogliasco Fellowship Program for miraculous support; to the editors who have published these stories in magazines and anthologies, including John Freeman, Robin Black, Adrienne Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Geraldine Brooks, Allison Wright, W. Ralph Eubanks, and particularly Michael Ray of
Zoetrope: All-Story
, who got me writing short stories again with the right question at the right time.

ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN
is the author of
The Giant’s House
, which was nominated for the National Book Award;
Niagara Falls All Over Again
, winner of the PEN/Winship Award;
Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry
;
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
; and
Thunderstruck & Other Stories
. She has received grants and awards from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy in Berlin, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is currently the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.

elizabethmccracken.com

@elizmccracken