Chapters (60)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Personae
- I: Early Days
- One. Control
- Two. Doubt
- Three. Fate
- Four. Same
- Five. Fine Arts
- Six. In Loco Parentis
- Seven. Settling
- Eight. Neighbors
- Nine. Prospects
- Ten. The Lucky
- Eleven. Instruction
- Twelve. Same
- Thirteen. This Is a Pipe
- Fourteen. This Is Not a Pipe
- Fifteen. The Reason
- Sixteen. That Person
- Seventeen. Predictably
- II: Writing Teacher
- Eighteen. Early Poems
- Nineteen. Motivation
- Twenty. Allegory
- Twenty-One. Grief
- Twenty-Two. A Portrait
- Twenty-Three. Veils
- Twenty-Four. Soft Power
- Twenty-Five. Lists
- Twenty-Six. A Break
- Twenty-Seven. Elsewhere
- Twenty-Eight. Custom
- Twenty-Nine. Parity
- Thirty. Fortune
- III: Volta
- Thirty-One. Images
- Thirty-Two. A Very Interesting Young Man
- Thirty-Three. Letters
- Thirty-Four. We Prefer to See Ourselves Living
- Thirty-Five. Love
- Thirty-Six. The Iceberg
- IV: Your Best Reader
- Thirty-Seven. A Novelist
- Thirty-Eight. In Advance of the Broken Arm
- Thirty-Nine. Their Penultimate Encounter
- Forty. Détente
- Forty-One. Worlds
- Forty-Two. Recognition
- Forty-Three. Persistence
- Forty-Four. And Then
- Forty-Five. Mingling
- Forty-Six. You
- Forty-Seven. Persona
- Forty-Eight. Est et Non
- Forty-Nine. The Author
- Epilogue
- Afterword: The Libertine
- Acknowledgments
- About the Authors
Marta is unperturbed. “It’s nice to see you again.” She studies Harry’s face. “I see that you, like me, have decided not to leave town.” She smiles. “It’s very beautiful here in winter, don’t you think? I couldn’t bear to leave. One simply has so much room, and on a day like this, I think you have to say that it’s like a prism out there.” Marta fusses with the top of her parka. She sips tea from a paper cup. “Don and Lizzie, my husband and daughter, are skiing. They’re out west. I just let them go. Just like that. Strange of me, don’t you think?”
Harry has no idea why his opinion should have any bearing on Marta Hillary’s relationship with her husband or child.
Marta continues, “So I’ve decided to stay put for the moment.” She pauses. “Oh, now I remember! You’re that psychologist, the one who knows our new star, Troy. I was sorry we were not able to speak more, the other night perhaps, or last month? I believe you are a very interesting young man.” Marta Hillary seems to press something into Harry’s gaze, and for several seconds he cannot look away from her. “Yes, now I remember,” Marta intones. “I remember I was very glad to see you. At our home.”
Marta Hillary has a paper napkin and is writing something down on it. “Here,” she says.
Marta Hillary goes out the door.
Harry forces himself to stay and consume coffee. He sits and touches the cup. He carefully folds the napkin Marta Hillary has given him and puts it in his coat pocket. The napkin has writing on it Harry does not want, for the moment at least, to read.
Harry leaves the Ground House. He walks to the library, where he checks his email. There is just one email from a real human. Predictably it is from Loudermilk. Loudermilk—also predictably—doesn’t say much. He tells Harry he hopes he’s still alive and, if so, there’s a little something that Harry could please do if Harry wouldn’t mind, and this thing is, of all things, to write to Loudermilk’s great new conquest. A log-in for an account Loudermilk has independently invented, [email protected], and an institutional address for the mark are provided. Loudermilk says Harry should make what he writes as good as a poem. Loudermilk also says, So she knows I’m thinking about her. We’re in her class next semester and need to initiate ass-kiss pronto! I’d do it myself but you know my, uh, anthropological history. Now get spastic with it, you Amish pirate you, thanks dude. There is, in addition, a brief and enigmatic P.S.: Why do farts smell? (it’s a joke).
Thirty-Three. Letters
Thirty-Three
Letters
Thu, 8 Jan 2004 22:30:32
From: [email protected]
Subject: Happy New Year
Dear Professor Hillary,