A Permanent Member of the Family

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Some of these stories were first published in the following periodicals: Conjunctions (“A Permanent Member of the Family”); Esquire (“The Outer Banks”); Harper’s (“Christmas Party”); Libération (“Lost and Found,” translated by Pierre Furlan); Narrative (“Lost and Found”); Salmagundi (“Big Dog”); Yale Review (“Blue,” “Transplant”).

“The Invisible Parrot” was first published in Fighting Words (Dublin, 2012), a limited-edition anthology edited by Roddy Doyle.

After lying in bed awake for an hour, Connie finally pushes back the blankets and gets up. It’s still dark. He’s barefoot and shivering in his boxers and T-shirt and a little hungover from one beer too many at 20 Main last night. He snaps the bedside lamp on and resets the thermostat from fifty-five to sixty-five. The burner makes a huffing sound and the fan kicks in, and the smell of kerosene drifts through the trailer. He pats his new hearing aids into place and peers out the bedroom window. Snow is falling across a pale splash of lamplight on the lawn. It’s a week into April and it ought to be rain, but Connie is glad it’s snow. He removes his.45-caliber Colt service pistol from the drawer of the bedside table, checks to be sure it’s loaded and lays it on the dresser.

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