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Authors: Adam Haslett

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BOOK: Imagine Me Gone
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“It’s incredible how you take care of all those people. I don’t know how you do it.”

“You took care of us,” she says. “You did your best.”

I hug her, so as not to cry. “Well, Paul’s very fortunate. I do know that.”

She lets herself be hugged. “I envy you sometimes,” she says over my shoulder, “with the weather and all those dates you remember, enjoying all of that, those little things. I thought that was naive, too. But you’re lucky. It’s good you can enjoy it.”

Before I can take in what she’s saying, the door opens and Alec saunters in, half displacing us from in front of the mirror in order to adjust his tie.

“The crowds have gathered,” he says. “They await you with bated breath.”

I don’t know what is funny about this, except it’s the sort of thing Michael would say, parodying the moment. And that, perhaps more than anything, is what makes me laugh, which causes the two of them to smile, and then start laughing themselves, about nothing at all, it seems.

Soon I have to wipe my eyes, I’m laughing so hard, and I tell them, “Oh, come on now, we have to hold ourselves together.”

“Why?” Alec says.

  

The service itself is brief. I walk Celia down the narrow aisle. Two of their friends read short poems. Kyle leads them through their vows. At the end, everyone claps and the newlyweds point their guests to a long table, where champagne glasses have been set out. The white tablecloth is bright in the full sun. The light dazzles the wine as it’s poured. Ben and Laura and Caleigh make sure everyone has a drink in hand. After a while, Alec taps his glass, the conversation quiets, and he gives his sister a toast their father would have been proud of.

It is quite warm and people begin to sweat, their foreheads glistening as they chatter and laugh, enjoying themselves on a beautiful afternoon. And though I know I shouldn’t be looking backwards, that I should be here in this moment, I can’t help it that all of this—the garden with the drinks, and the sun, and the people in a buoyant mood—carries me back to the day I went to the house on Slaidburn Street, off the King’s Road, taken along to a party by a friend, through a low-ceilinged hallway and onto the little square of lawn at the back, where I saw John for the first time, standing in his pin-striped pants and shirtsleeves behind the dining room table they had carried out onto the grass and covered with what looked like a folded bedsheet. He was mixing gin and tonics, and after he had made me one, he stepped around that table to drink his own with me. To begin our first conversation. With such politeness and such care.

It’s a day I recall not in sadness, but in wonder at all that followed.

Acknowledgments

For their support during the writing and editing of this book, the author wishes to thank Ben George, Amanda Urban, Simon Prosser, Nicole Dewey, Amity Gaige, Minna Proctor, Jon Franzen, Nancy Haslett, Julia Haslett, Robert Millner, David Menschel, Jenna Chandler-Ward, Andrew Janjigian, Melissa Rivard, Mark Breitenberg, and most especially Daniel Thomas Davis. Additional thanks to the American Academy in Berlin, the MacDowell Colony, the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Adrienne Brodeur, Jennifer Coor, and Susan and Ben Baxt.

About the Author

Adam Haslett is the author of the short story collection
You Are Not a Stranger Here,
which was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, and the novel
Union Atlantic,
winner of the Lambda Literary Award and finalist the Commonwealth Prize. His books have been translated into eighteen languages, and he is the recipient of the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy in Berlin, the PEN/Malamud Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. He lives in New York City.

Also by Adam Haslett

You Are Not a Stranger Here

Union Atlantic

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Contents

 
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Welcome
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Alec
  7. Michael
  8. I
    1. Margaret
    2. Celia
    3. Margaret
    4. Celia
    5. Michael
    6. Alec
    7. John
  9. II
    1. Michael
    2. Celia
    3. Alec
    4. Margaret
    5. Celia
    6. Michael
  10. III
    1. Alec
    2. Michael
    3. Margaret
    4. Celia
    5. Michael
    6. Alec
    7. Celia
    8. Alec
    9. Margaret
  11. Acknowledgments
  12. About the Author
  13. Also by Adam Haslett
  14. Newsletters
  15. Copyright

   

   
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
The description of the historical episode recounted
here
is drawn from Greg Grandin’s
The Empire of Necessity.
Copyright © 2016 by Adam Haslett
Cover design by Keith Hayes
Author photograph by Beowulf Sheehan
Cover copyright © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
littlebrown.com
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First ebook edition: May 2016
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
Excerpt from “America Eats Its Young” from Funkadelic,
America Eats Its Young
(Westbound Records, 1972). Written by Harold Beane, George Clinton, and Bernie Worrell. Published by Bridgeport Music, Inc. Used with permission.
Excerpt from “Unbelievable (Alone),” words and music by Toby Gad and Ris Lauren. Copyright © 2005 BMG Ruby Songs, Gad Songs LLC, Liedela Music, and Ris Lauren Music. All Rights for BMG Ruby Songs, Gad Songs LLC, and Liedela Music Administered by BMG Rights. Management (US) LLC. All Rights Reserved Used by Permission.
Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation and Reach Music Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 978-0-316-26136-4
E3-20160328-DA-NF

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Welcome

Dedication

Epigraph

Alec

Michael

I

Margaret
Celia
Margaret
Celia
Michael
Alec
John

II

Michael
Celia
Alec
Margaret
Celia
Michael

III

Alec
Michael
Margaret
Celia
Michael
Alec
Celia
Alec
Margaret

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Adam Haslett

Newsletters

Table of Contents

Copyright

BOOK: Imagine Me Gone
12.59Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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