Then she cooked up a bunch more fish, remembering to paint a few white for her father.
Who at that moment said something amazing:
“You remind me of your mother,” he said. “So generous and all.”
Then he did something amazing:
He ate an unpainted fish.
SO THE NEXT MORNING, AND EVERY morning after that, Capable and her father and the Romos and the Ronsens went down to the sea and fished.
AND LIFE GOT BETTER.
Not perfect, but better. The Ronsen girls still sometimes stood completely motionless in order to look somewhat pretty; the Romo boys still argued, often about who was a better worm-finder, after which they wrestled about who was a better worm-finder, after which they argued about who’d gotten more sand down his underwear during the wrestling, after which they hopped up and down, comparing the amount of sand that came dribbling out of their underwear; Mrs. Romo still burst into song from time to time, prompting the Ronsens to cover their ears, after which Mrs. Romo would sing louder, sort of pursuing the wincing Ronsens down the beach; but generally, on most days, everyone was happier.
Except of course the fish.
AND THE GAPPERS.
For weeks afterward, the gappers came sadly into town, looking for the goats.
But the goats were in Fritch, fat and happy.
Finally that less-stupid gapper, the one with the sticking-out brain, called a meeting. Seeing as how there were no longer any goats in Frip, he proposed that they stop loving goats. The goats had never returned their affections. The goats had taken them for granted. Goats stunk, actually. What was the point of loving someone who only nipped at you with its sharp yellow teeth whenever you joyously shrieked because you were happy to see it? It was an outrage. They’d been played for fools. Would it not, he proposed, be more prudent for them to love something that might actually love them back, something solid and reliable, something that was actually still present in Frip?
What did he have in mind? the other gappers asked. What was still in Frip that might possibly love them back?
Fences, the brighter gapper replied. And he began singing the praises of the attractive yet reliable fences of Frip, which never, to his knowledge, had nipped anything with their teeth, not having teeth, and which never, to his knowledge, had even nipped anything with their gates, but had only stood with great dignity in all sorts of weather, looking out very calmly to sea, as if waiting for something wonderful to emerge from the sea and begin madly loving them.
So the gappers took a vote. And though they were not in perfect agreement—one believed they should begin loving wadded-up pieces of paper, another believed they should begin loving turtles, particularly turtles who were dying, particularly dying turtles who nevertheless kept a positive attitude—the gappers still very much admired and trusted that less-stupid gapper, and voted to begin madly loving fences.
Which is how Frip came to be what it is today: a seaside town known for its relatively happy fisherpeople and its bright orange shrieking fences.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GEORGE SAUNDERS is the author of eight books, including the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and was included in Time’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
LANE SMITH is a four-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book award and a two-time Caldecott Honor recipient. In 2012 the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art named him a Carle Artist for “lifelong innovation in the field of children’s picture books,” and in 2014 he was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Society of Illustrators. He is the illustrator of many books, including The Stinky Cheese Man, and the author/illustrator of It’s a Book, Grandpa Green, and John, Paul, George & Ben, among others. He is married to book designer Molly Leach.
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The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip Page 3