Steven Millhauser - We Others

ALSO BY STEVEN MILLHAUSER

DANGEROUS LAUGHTER

THE KING IN THE TREE

ENCHANTED NIGHT

THE KNIFE THROWER

MARTIN DRESSLER

LITTLE KINGDOMS

THE BARNUM MUSEUM

FROM THE REALM OF MORPHEUS

IN THE PENNY ARCADE

PORTRAIT OF A ROMANTIC

EDWIN MULLHOUSE

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2011 by Steven Millhauser

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Tales of Darkness and the Unknown, Vol. XIV: The White Glove originally appeared in Tin House; Getting Closer and The Invasion from Outer Space originally appeared in The New Yorker; and The Next Thing originally appeared in Harpers.

Selected stories in this work were previously published in the following collections:

A Protest Against the Sun (first published in The New Yorker), August Eschenburg (first published in Antaeus), and Snowmen (first published in Grand Street) in In the Penny Arcade, copyright 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 by Steven Millhauser(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986).

The Barnum Museum (first published in Grand Street), The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad (first published in Grand Street), and Eisenheim the Illusionist (first published in Esquire as The Illusionist) in The Barnum Museum, copyright 1990 by Steven Millhauser(New York: Poseidon Press, 1990).

The Knife Thrower (first published in Harpers), A Visit (first published in The New Yorker), Flying Carpets (first published in The Paris Review), and Clair de Lune in The Knife Thrower, copyright 1998 by Steven Millhauser (New York: Crown Publishers, 1998).

Cat n Mouse (first published in The New Yorker), The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman (first published in The New Yorker), History of a Disturbance (first published in The New Yorker), and The Wizard of West Orange (first published in Harpers)in Dangerous Laughter, copyright 2008 by Steven Millhauser (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Millhauser, Steven.
We others : new and selected stories / Steven Millhauser. 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-70143-5
I. Title.
PS 3563. I 422 W 42 2011
813.54dc22 2011000078

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Jacket design by Peter Mendelsund

v3.1

TO KATE

The stories in this collection were written over a period of thirty years. At first I tried to choose stories that seemed to me representative, but I soon realized that the ones omitted from the collection might represent me just as well. My final method had nothing to do with being cautious or dutiful. I chose stories that seized my attention as if theyd been written by someone whose work I had never seen before. What makes a story bad, or good, or better than good, can be explained and understood up to a point, but only up to a point. Whats seductive is mysterious and can never be known. I prefer to leave it at that.

WALTER LASHER . One September evening when Walter Lasher returned from the city after a hard days work and was walking to his car in the station parking lot, a man stepped out from between two cars, walked up to him, and slapped him hard in the face. Lasher was so startled that he did not move. The man turned and walked briskly away. Lasher was a big man, six one, with broad shoulders and a powerful neck. No one had dared to hit him since the sixth grade. He remembered it still: Jimmy Kubec had pushed him in the chest, and Lasher had swung so hard that he broke Kubecs nose. Lasher looked around. The man was gone, a few commuters were strolling to their cars. For a moment he had the sensation that hed dreamed the whole thing: the sudden appearance of the stranger, the slap, the vanishing. His cheek stung: the man had slapped him hard. Lasher entered his car and started home. As he passed under the railroad trestle, crossed Main, and drove along streets lined with maples and sycamores, he kept summoning the little scene in the station parking lot. The man was about five ten, well built, tan trench coat, no hat. It was difficult to remember his face, though hed made no attempt to hide it and in fact had looked directly at Lasher. What stood out was something about the eyes: a hard, determined look; not rage, exactlymore like a cold sureness. The man had hit him once: hard. Then he had walked away. Lasher pulled over to the side of the road and checked his face in the rearview mirror. He wasnt certain, but the cheek looked a little red. He pulled back onto the street. The man must have mistaken him for someone else. A crazy guy, some loony off his meds, they should keep them locked up. But he hadnt looked crazy. Maybe a client, in over his head, unhappy with the performance of his investment portfolio in a tanking market. Or maybe Lasher had offended someone without knowing it, the man had followed him up from the city, and all because of a sharp word, an impatient look, a biting phrase, he had no time for fools, a bumped arm in the street. The man had looked directly at him. Lasher would talk it out with his wife. Theyd lived here for twenty-six years and nothing like this had ever happened to him. It was why you stayed out of the city, took the long commute. A few blocks from the beach he turned onto his street, where the lights were already on. They must have come on all over town while he was driving from the station. How could he have missed it? The man had taken him by surprise. He hadnt had time to react. He didnt like the mans eyes, didnt like the thought of himself standing there doing nothing. It was probably too late to call the policethe man would already be far away. Anna would know what to do. Lasher pulled into the drive and sat motionless in the darkening car. The man had looked hard at him: there was no mistake. He should have smashed him in the mouth. Jimmy Kubec had worn a bandage on his face for two weeks. Lasher walked across the flagstones and up the steps of the front porch. In the hall he could smell roast beef and basil. Hed save his misadventure for after dinner. The man had come right up to him and slapped him: hard. As Lasher hung up his hat he understood that he would not speak of it to Anna, who was coming toward him. Katie calledshes coming on Saturday. I said it was fine. I mean, what else could I do? Oh, and Jenkovitch left a message. He says he never can get hold of you. He wants you to call him back. Here, give me that. How was your day?

OUR TOWN