This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
S IMON & S CHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Reifler, Nelly.
See through : stories / Nelly Reifler.
p. cm.
I. Title.
PS3618.E555S44 2003
813.6dc21
2003050379
Praise for See Through
She writes cunningly with a commanding, spirited voice.
The Boston Globe
Reiflers oddball vignettes are spring-loaded miniatures that flirt with the surreal edges of childhood and adolescence youre astonished at her daring, her craft and her flair for narrative mischief.
Los Angeles Times
With unflinching precision, Reiflers debut collection of 14 short stories examines young protagonists negotiating adultgoverned worlds... the perceptive Reifler is a writer to watch.
Publishers Weekly
With her strong New York literary scene connections and her obvious talent, Reifler is bound to receive serious attention from these chiseled tales.
Kirkus Reviews
Reiflers stories are spare with an emotional tone surprisingly subtle and restraineda particularly admirable achievement when set against premises that are, at times, wildly absurdist. With the blackest of humor, an icy exactitude, and an ironic edge, these stories are reminiscent of Edward Gorey... and the diabolically psychological works of Patricia Highsmith.
Bookforum
Reifler seems to have an unflinching grasp on humanity . Remarkably, considering Reiflers command of style and strength of voice, See Through is her first published collection.
Seattle Weekly
Nelly Reifler is one to watch. The gritty texture of her described reality and her ability to get us inside her very strange characters within a few words makes this collection one to read and enjoy.
The Buffalo News
[Reiflers stories are] humorous or haunting (and often both), drawing their vivid, lasting imagery from a foundation in the all-too-real.
Amazon.com
Nelly Reiflers unnerving stories are brilliantly observed through a glass darkly and on the other side we see that every mortal soul, no matter how young or old, is as vulnerable as a flower in the wind.
Jacki Lyden, host, National Public Radio, author of Daughter of the Queen ofSheha
In prose that shines with precision and clarity, Nelly Reiflers stories take the reader into the opaque and frequently disturbing realms of human estrangement and desire. Intelligent, honest, and mordantly funny, See Through is an impressive work by a writer of rare gifts.
Siri Hustvedt, author of What I Loved
The fourteen stories that make up Nelly Reiflers terrific first collection form a kind of cabinet of fear and wonder in the mind. They achieve this by skillfully fusing aspects of realism, surrealism and dark fairy tale with results that echo the sharply dreamed, impeccably crafted and arranged work of an Angela Carter, a Rebecca Brown or even a Lydia Davis: individual stories shine; but it is in the marvel of their juxtaposition, their accumulation, that their power comes fully into relief.
Laird Hunt, The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Nelly Reifler has a wild, ironic, accomplished voice. For all their dark comedy, Reiflers stories perfectly depict the winds of listlessness and sadness that blow through our lives and leave us chilled. These little stories contain the huge unnerving conviction of an authentic writer.
Darin Strauss, author of The Real McCoy and Chang and Eng
T EENY
T here they were.
Through the window, she could see them, one on either arm of the sofa.
They seemed to be asleep.
She had her instructions, written on a piece of lined notebook paper. She had reviewed them earlier. Now the paper was cinched in her fist, blank side out, words hidden. Her hand was sweaty.
She looked at them through the window.
She leaned forward and pressed her free hand against the glass. Her breath made a spot, which disappeared instantly from its edges inward.
What were they doing? Were they sleeping? Were they just lying there with their eyes closed? Were they dreaming? Were they thinking?
The key to the house dangled from a plastic lanyard, which she had snapped around her belt loop when she got dressed that morning.
Her fist tightened. The instructions crinkled.
It was just yesterday that she had been inside the house with her mother. Yesterday the people had shown her the plastic bowls on the kitchen floor. The litter box in the laundry room. The emergency numbers on the refrigerator. She had knelt on the kitchen floor and patted the striped one on its head, and her mother had said to the people, See? Shes a natural. Shell probably be a vet when she grows up. It was yesterday, yes, but it seemed so long ago. In her memory, yesterdays visit was a slow blur, as if her eyelashes had been glued together. Now, again, looking through the window, she felt as if she were peering through a thicket of eyelashes and glue.
She backed away from the window. Slowly, slowly, away from the house. She stumbled on a low green wire fence which guarded a flower bed. She almost fell, but she caught herself. There were no flowers there yet; it was too early There was just dark brown earth, which had recently been turned over, and a few tiny green sprouts.
At the bottom of the driveway, she looked up and down the street. No one was around. No one saw her.
That evening, she lay on the living room carpet with a stack of chocolate chip cookies on her belly She ate them slowly, contemplatively. She had started out with six, but somehow she had only one cookie left when she heard her mothers car in the driveway There was the grinding noise of the garage door. Silence for a momentthen the click of the car door opening, and a thump when it closed. She shut her eyes and put a placid expression on her face. She rested her arms by her sides and let her legs flop open.
The door between the garage and kitchen opened. She heard keys drop on the table. Water running.
Teeny? her mother called.
She lay still.
I need some help here, Teeny. Where are you?
She heard her mothers voice come closer. Her legs felt like wobbly gelatin. Her stomach turned over. Her heart started beating faster.