Catapult

by Emily Fridlund

  Outside, the neighbor is arranging a line of sprinklers in his grass. I open the door, and the dog leaps over the spray like fences, one after another after the next.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  These stories have appeared previously, sometimes in different forms, in the following publications: “Expecting” in Boston Review, “Catapult” in The Chariton Review, “One You Run from, the Other You Fight” in Sou’wester, “Marco Polo” in New Delta Review (and reposted on Longreads and Instafiction), “Gimme Shelter” (then titled “Raising the House”) in Great River Review, “Lock Jaw” in ZYZZYVA, “Here, Still” in New Orleans Review, “Time Difference” in FiveChapters, and “Learning to Work with Your Hands” (then titled “Holiday”) in Philadelphia Stories. I am grateful to the editors of these journals, who coaxed these stories into stronger versions.

  I also extend my sincere thanks to Sarah Gorham, Ariel Lewiton, Kristen Radtke, and all those at Sarabande who believed in these stories and helped me bring them out into the world together as a collection. My very humblest thank you to Ben Marcus for reading Catapult and articulating with such grace what I had always only hoped a reader might find in its pages. I am also grateful to the supportive colleagues and devoted teachers who read these stories in their initial incarnations, in particular Aimee Bender and T. C. Boyle when I was at the University of Southern California, and Marshall Klimasewiski and Kellie Wells when I was at Washington University in St. Louis. Thank you to both institutions for providing support, along with rich, enlivening writing communities in which to grow. Many thanks, too, to the Anderson Center and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, where several of these stories were initially composed.

  My gratitude to Nick Admussen for being such an intimate part of the long evolution of these stories: for your thrilling conversation, intense partnership, sharp intelligence, and ongoing friendship. So many of these works are so much better for your having read them.

  And finally, this book owes its deepest debt to my family. This collection, at its core, comes out of a commitment I learned at an early age to care fiercely, while never forgetting to honor ambivalence, too, and its curious exploration of the many, many possible outcomes to every story. Thank you to my beloved parents and siblings for making art—chastening and so mysterious—possible in my life. It has been and is the most extraordinary gift.

  SOME NOTES

  Many books and ideas inspired this collection of stories, but there are some sources referred to or used more directly. “Catapult”: information on time travel found on Wikipedia’s “Time Travel” entry, summer 2009. “Gimme Shelter”: Lynn’s boyfriend sings the Rolling Stones’ song “Gimme Shelter.” “Lock Jaw”: The narrator’s brother reads from the third step of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. “Time Difference”: Jill and her boyfriend discuss The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan; Jill also reads from Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. “Old House”: Liv quotes from Heaven and Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Emily Fridlund grew up in Minnesota and currently lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Her fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, ZYZZYVA, FiveChapters, New Orleans Review, Sou’wester, New Delta Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Southwest Review. She holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Fridlund’s first novel, History of Wolves (Atlantic Monthly Press), was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, one of USA Today’s Notable Books, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and a #1 Indie Next pick.

  SARABANDE BOOKS is a nonprofit literary press located in Louisville, KY, and Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 1994 to champion poetry, short fiction, and essay, we are committed to creating lasting editions that honor exceptional writing. For more information, please visit sarabandebooks.org.