Read News of the Spirit Online
Authors: Lee Smith
News of the Spirit
PRAISE FOR
News of the Spirit
“Lively…wise and wry tales.”
—The Seattle Times
“Some of her best work…‘Southern Cross’ and ‘News of the Spirit’ are magic…These stories…glitter with insight and a sharp personal vision.”
—The Raleigh News & Observer
“Lee Smith is a writer’s writer, a teller of tales for tale tellers to admire and envy.”
—Houston Chronicle
“A thoroughly enjoyable and moving reading experience.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Lee Smith has a great way of stepping aside as a writer and slipping into the skin of her characters…[She] doesn’t so much write stories as tell stories—and darn good ones at that.”
—Jane
Berkley titles by Lee Smith
THE DEVIL’S DREAM
FAIR AND TENDER LADIES
ORAL HISTORY
BLACK MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN
NEWS OF THE SPIRIT
of the
SPIRIT
Lee Smith
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park. New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 1997 by Lee Smith.
Cover photo by Silvestre Machado/Getty Images. Cover design by Royce M. Becker.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
The author acknowledges permission from Hal Leonard Corporation to reprint lyrics from “Tragedy,” words and music by Gerald H. Nelson and Fred B. Burch. Copyright © 1958 (Renewed) Wren Music Co. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
Five of the stories in this volume, some in slightly different form, first appeared in the following magazines, to whose editors the author offers thanks: “The Bubba Stories” and “Live Bottomless” in
The Southern Review
; “Blue Wedding” in
Southwest Review
; “The Southern Cross” (as “Native Daughter”) in
The Oxford American
; and “The Happy Memories Club” in
The Atlantic Monthly
. “News of the Spirit” (as “We Don’t Love with Our Teeth”) was published in a limited edition by Chinook Press, Portland, Oregon, in 1994.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
G. P. Putnam’s Sons hardcover edition / September 1997
Ballantine trade paperback edition / September 1998
Berkley trade paperback edition / July 2012
The Library of Congress has cataloged the G. P. Putnam’s Sons hardcover edition as follows:
Smith, Lee, 1944–
News of the spirit / Lee Smith.
p. cm.
Contents: The Bubba stories—Blue wedding—Live bottomless—The southern cross—The happy memories club—News of the spirit.
ISBN: 978-1-101-58108-7
1. Southern States—Fiction. 2. Social life and customs—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.M5376 N48 1997
813/.54
97011660
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
Many thanks to Liz Lear for Key West information for “Live Bottomless”; to Alan Archibald for his expertise in Spanish; to Peggy Ellis for help in manuscript preparation; to Anna Jardine for her copyediting; to Liz Darhansoff for her longtime guidance and support; and most of all to Hal for his love and good advice. On individual stories, I appreciate the editing of C. Michael Curtis, Dave Smith, Bob Durand, Marc Smirnoff, and Willard Spiegelman.
The title “News of the Spirit” comes from a phrase used in a talk years ago by the wonderful writer and teacher George Garrett. I copied it down, and have always remembered it.
For Faith Sale,
my great friend and editor
CONTENTS
B
UBBA
S
TORIES
Even now when I think of my brother Bubba, he appears instantly just as he was then, rising up before me in the very flesh, grinning that one-sided grin, pushing his cowlick out of his tawny eyes, thumbs hooked in the loops of his wheat jeans, Bass Weejuns held together with electrical tape, leaning against his green MGB. Lawrence Leland Christian III—Bubba—in the days of his glory, Dartmouth College, ca. 1965. Brilliant, Phi Beta Kappa his junior year. The essence of cool. The essence not only of cool but of
bad
, for Bubba was a legendary wild man in those days; and while certain facts in his legend varied, this constant remained: Bubba would do anything.
Anything.
