The Atmospherians

by Alex McElroy

  They wished him good luck.

  Outside was the morning. The sunrise was like a broken egg yolk in the sky. The air had thickened and become almost buttery. It stuck to his tongue. He gasped into his inhaler.

  Randy gave Blair a boarding pass and a check for five thousand dollars—far more than Blair had paid to come here. “We hope it will prove how truly sorry we are for your inconvenience. This is not who The Atmospherians are.”

  The driver spun the keys on his finger. Blair followed him to the car but paused before getting in and looked back at the building. On the sidewalk, men in tracksuits of every color were lined up shoulder to shoulder along the entire perimeter of the mall, whitewashing the building to hide the graffiti. They rolled white paint up the walls, down the walls, each man rolling the opposite way to the man beside him, a perfect pistoning of concealment. Blair watched as the words faded under layers of paint, from blood to brick to antacid pink to the final and wonderful nothing. When the walls were entirely white, the men continued to paint. They appeared happy and content as they worked, free from the lives that led them here, safe from the pressures of jobs, rent, love, family, and friends—free from expectations and need. They dunked their rollers in paint. They rolled the paint on the walls. They were nourished.

  acknowledgments

  I COMPLETED this novel during one of the hardest stretches in my life. No book, I had to learn, is ever more important than the life of the person creating it. I am grateful for the friends and family who encouraged me to keep going.

  Thank you Jeff, Cuyler, Rachel, Taneum, Kyle B, Erica, Craig, Noah, Conor, Kyle C, Rubén, Emily, Gabe, Robbie, Ashly, Lumans, Annalia, Britt, Stephen, Wilfred, Mary, Linda, Novuyo, Cait, Theadora, Jeffrey, and too many others to name.

  Endless thanks to my superstar agent, Marya Spence, for seeing potential in this flicker of a book so many years ago—also for the meandering phone calls. Huge thanks to Clare Mao for your edits and the comprehensive list of influencers-to-know and to Natalie Edwards for your astute reading of the final draft.

  I am very lucky to have worked with three brilliant editors at Atria. The enthusiasm, wisdom, and care of Rakesh Satyal, Loan Le, and Daniella Wexler made the revision process suspiciously painless. Thank you, too, to Jade Hui, Gena Lanzi, Maudee Genoa, and the entire Atria team for taking my work so seriously.

  Several drafts of this book were completed during my time at the University of Houston. Thank you to my colleagues at UH and to the organizations that provided additional fellowships, including the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Brown Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, Inprint Houston, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Tin House Summer Workshop.

  Early readers of this novel walked a difficult line between honesty and generosity to motivate me to continue. This novel exists because of your encouragement. I am grateful to have shared this manuscript with Alex, Allegra, Bryan, and Willie.

  Not a single sentence of this book could have been written without the support of my teachers. Thank you for seeing something in my work before I did, Sally Ball, Matt Bell, Robert Boswell, Isabelle Brock, Chitra Divakaruni, Sarah Ehlers, Mat Johnson, Tara Ison, Ted Leeson, Mike McNally, Antonya Nelson, Alexander Parsons, Tara Roeder, Keith Scribner, Michael Snediker, Peter Turchi, and Tara Williams.

  Thank you to Kelly and Todd at The Cupboard Pamphlet for bringing my daddy issues to the world. Thank you to Mercantile Montrose, home of a vital desk away from my desk and pourers of the finest drip in Harris County. A loving and exasperated thank-you to the cats over the years who stole my chair whenever I refilled my coffee: Baxter, Finn, Helen, and Stella. You deserve all of the treats.

  Finally, thank you to my parents for never asking what I planned to do with my English degree. You already knew the answer: write books.

  More in Literary Fiction

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  The Woman in Cabin 10

  Ordinary Grace

  The Lake House

  Manhattan Beach

  The Japanese Lover

  about the author

  ALEX McELROY (they/them) is a nonbinary writer based in Brooklyn. They received their MFA from Arizona State University and their PhD from the University of Houston. Their writing has appeared in Tin House, The Atlantic, and Vice, and has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Elizabeth George Foundation. The Atmospherians is their first novel.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2021 by Alex McElroy

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  First Atria Books hardcover edition May 2021

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  Interior design by A. Kathryn Barrett

  Jacket photograph of landscape by Plainpicture/Hans Strand; social media icons © Shutterstock; water droplets by Olga Yastremska/123RF

  Author photograph by Grace Rivera

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-1-9821-5830-9

  ISBN 978-1-9821-5831-6 (ebook)