I’ve written a lot in this collection about creative parents and the power of influence. Nietzsche had a fine saying, however: One repays a teacher badly by remaining always a student. “All I Care About Is You” is, I think, its own thing, with its own rhythms and ideas and emotional texture. It appeared in The Weight of Words, an anthology of stories inspired by the protean art of Dave McKean, but, as with “Silver Water,” I already had a draft before I was asked to jump in. Contributors were offered a selection of illustrations and asked to pick one and write a story about it. As it happened, though, there was a piece among them that looked as if it had been specifically crafted for “All I Care About Is You,” almost as if McKean knew what I was going to write before I wrote it. And maybe he did.

I’m not entirely kidding. The best works of art have a tendency to fall through time differently than human beings. They remember, but they also anticipate. A good piece can mean different things to different people at different times, and all of those meanings are true, even if they contradict one another. McKean didn’t know what I was going to write and didn’t need to. His imagination knew what might be written, and that was enough.

THUMBPRINT

“Thumbprint” is the oldest story here. It was composed in 2006, after PS Publishing released their edition of 20th Century Ghosts but before the publication of Heart-Shaped Box. I was, at the time, dimly aware that I was in trouble. Professionally, things had never looked better, but psychologically, I was beginning to tussle with anxiety and the pressure to write another novel. I had already begun a couple of things that didn’t make it past page ten. Stories roared to life and were shot down before they took their first steps. “Thumbprint” was the only thing that made it through the enfilade, a nasty story about a hard, resilient woman who came back from Iraq with blood on her conscience, only to find herself stalked by an unseen hunter here in the States. In retrospect I guess Mal was tough enough to make it home from the sand and tough enough to carry me through this particular story. It was published in Postscripts in 2007. Later, comic-book writer Jason Ciaramella and artist Vic Malhotra adapted “Thumbprint” into a bare-knuckled graphic novel, heavy on the war, light on the peace.

THE DEVIL ON THE STAIRCASE