Mission to America
Page 25
The Seeress kissed Betsy's forehead and it was done. The kiss she gave me was a mere formality. It conveyed her affection but transferred no authority. That resided elsewhere now, passed safely along at the last possible moment through codes and signs I couldn't comprehend.
We didn't need fortifications after all. We had tunnels. We had tunnels out. One, the very deepest, was so narrow that only two people could pass through it, but two was enough, the Seeress assured us. Two was the All-in-One's own secret number.
“Take my big old Lincoln,” she instructed us. “The keys are in the nightstand, in the drawer. There's an envelope under the driver's seat with money. It's finished here. It's complete. It's had its day. We've known it was coming since Mother Lucy. All of us. I'd tell you more, but I'm out of spit, my darlings. Now run along. Go. Go reinfold yourselves.”
And so we set forth, that same night, into the world, and nothing was lost, because where would it have gone?
About the Author
Walter Kirn is a novelist, journalist, and critic who lives in Livingston, Montana. He is the author of four previous works of fiction: My Hard Bargain: Stories, She Needed Me, Thumbsucker, and Up in the Air.
ALSO BY WALTER KIRN
My Hard Bargain: Stories
She Needed Me
Thumbsucker
Up in the Air
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2003.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kirn, Walter, 1962–
Mission to America : a novel / Walter Kirn.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Missionaries—Fiction. 2. Rich people—Fiction. 3. Ski resorts—Fiction. 4. Matriarchy—Fiction. 5. Young men—Fiction. 6. Colorado—Fiction. 7. Cults—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.I746M57 2005
813'.54—dc22
2005045477
Copyright © 2005 by Walter Kirn
All Rights Reserved
eISBN: 978-0-307-27855-5
v3.0