A few months later, he sold his parents’ house and bought a small ranch farther back in the barrens. The new location put an extra half hour on his walk to work. He returned to his route past the Busy Bee, though he never again entered the store. With the money left over after the purchase of the smaller house, he invested five thousand dollars in having the painting of Sleeping Beauty restored to its original look. The library was still slated to move and the building would be demolished. But there were still two years. The night of the day he called the restoration artists, he woke in his bed to a state of paralysis. Once again, he achieved the night world and wound up in the attic room of Shiela Tobac.

The red-haired girl was asleep on the cot in the corner, her glasses half on, a pencil between her fingers, and even though he didn’t have to tiptoe to not be heard, he did. He moved around the walls, lighting them just enough with his pale blue glow to see. Through voluminous chapters he searched, literally high and low, and discovered somewhere just above the baseboard, in the middle of the western wall, a mention of Melody.

He followed her story, which blew like a breeze through the otherwise greater plot of the novel. When he lost sight of it on one wall, he found it on another. The pieces came together like a puzzle the further he read. And then she was there, standing before chapter eleven, pale blue and beckoning him with open arms. He took a step toward her and caught only a brief glimpse of the dull center of her lifeless stare. She lunged and he woke. That was his last journey to the night world. For the rest of his life, he had to suffice with dreams.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Ruoxi Chen and Irene Gallo at Tor.com Publishing for making this book possible. Also, a big thanks to John Klima, who let me interview him about what he does all day as a librarian besides hide in the stacks. And, of course, thanks to my agent, Howard Morhaim.

About the Author

Author photograph © Lynn Gallagher-Ford

Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, and Crackpot Palace. His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, from MAD Magazine to The Oxford Book of American Short Stories.

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Also by Jeffrey Ford

Vanitas

The Physiognomy

Memoranda

The Beyond

The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant

The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque

The Empire of Ice Cream

The Girl in the Glass

The Cosmology of the Wider World

The Drowned Life

The Shadow Year