"Turn on your television."
"I can hardly hear you. What channel?"
"I don't know, try CNN."
"Wow, that's impressive — is that near your house?"
"That is my house."
"Where are you calling from?"
"I'm floating," he says. "I'm out in the middle of the ocean."
"You should try to swim back to shore."
"There's a helicopter coming, it's just above me now, there's a man with a camera — I'm waving. Can you see me? Can anyone see me?"
She is watching him live from New York; he is on the dining-room table, at sea. "Are you OK?" she asks.
"Fantastic, never better," he says, and he's not lying. "I'm just floating, waiting to see what happens next."
A man leans out of the chopper with a megaphone. "Hello down there, can you hear me?"
"YES," he screams.
"We have you in our sights," the man says. "Hold on."
Somewhere deep in the ground below the tectonic plates once again shift. And far in the distance, something catches his eye: Richard watches as the enormous Ferris wheel rolls gracefully off the Santa Monica Pier and into the water.
"We will not forget you," the man says as the chopper banks to the left, pulling away, flying back towards the pier.
"Dad, are you still there?" Ben asks, panicked.
"Yeah, I'm here."
"I can't see you anymore."
"I'm here," he says, "I'll always be here, even when you can't see me, I'm still here."
Acknowledgments
For their inspiration, good care, and strong advice, the author would like to thank: Tracy Glaser, Amy Hempel, Marc H. Glick, Sara Holloway, Patricia McCormick, Dan Menaker, Anne Philbin, Marie Sanford, Paul Slovak, Cynthia Wornham, Andrew Wylie, Sarah Chalfant, Jin Auh, The Writers Room NYC, Andre Balazs, Philip Pavel and the staff at the Chateau Marmont, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library, Elaina Richardson, and the Corporation of Yaddo.
About the Author
A. M. Homes is the author of four novels — In a Country of Mothers, The End of Alice, Music for Torching and Jack — and two collections of short stories, The Safety of Objects and the highly acclaimed Things You Should Know, all published by Granta Books. Granta will also be publishing her memoir The Mistress's Daughter in 2007. She lives in New York City, http://www.amhomesbooks.com/