The Wilds (41 page)

“Imagine dosing a whole city,” Possum says, “with some neuropharmaceutical a thousand times more potent than
LSD
.”

“Sounds groovy.” Tim yawns. “You could live-blog the craziness.”

“The
CIA
did it to Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951.”

“I saw that on AlterNet.”

“Acid in the local bakery’s bread, but you could hit the water supply.”

“Or the air supply.”

“Great name for a band.”

We’re moving a few feet every five minutes, approaching what I assume is a wreck. I imagine iconic five-car pileups, crumpled metal, the apocalyptic stench of smoke. I imagine mangled travelers moaning on stretchers, their blitzed faces discreetly covered. Mushroom clouds swell. Helicopters dart like wasps. Just over the horizon, alien life-forms swarm in spaceships as sleek and black as insect eggs. I imagine the world ruptured, angelic screeches flying around my ears, my heart finally opening like a rose.

When we reach the overpass, there’s nothing on the roadside but a piece of fender and some shattered glass. Traffic picks up. And soon we’re bearing down upon the city, navigating through a mess of orange construction cones.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Kelly Malloy and the Denise Shannon Literary Agency for helping me find the perfect place for my work. I am deeply indebted to the crew at Tin House Books and magazine—I could not have found a better home for my first two books. Meg Storey, my visionary editor, pored over these stories with obsessive attention and supernatural patience, unlocking their full potential. Nanci McCloskey has been a smart, accessible, and enthusiastic publicist. Using the gorgeous artwork of Catrin Welz-Stein, Diane Chonette designed a stunning book cover. I am also grateful to Michelle Wildgen at
Tin House
magazine, who saw potential in both past and recent stories and applied her editorial magic to them. Bradford Morrow of
Conjunctions
has been particularly supportive, providing an illustrious haven for my weirdo fiction for nearly a decade. Stephen Corey of the
Georgia Review
, who has patiently read my submissions since I was a student at UGA, has championed some of my
best work. I would also like to thank George Singleton for supporting my endeavors and answering stupid questions about the publishing business. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, who published my work in the inaugural edition of
Best American Fantasy
, and Bill Henderson, who included my fiction in
The Pushcart Prize XXXVII
, helped me broaden and diversify my readership. Jon Mayes of Publishers Group West has gone above and beyond to promote this collection, as has my friend Bill Verner, whose knowledge about books and publishing has been revelatory for me. My friend Craig Brandhorst tinkered with half of the stories in this collection and slogged heroically through the bad ones that did not make it in. I would like to thank Cindi Boiter of
Jasper
magazine for her inexhaustible dedication to Columbia artists, Caitlin Bright of Tapp’s Arts Center for helping me dream up an amazing book launch, and my friend Stephen Taylor for designing my beautiful web site. Over the years the following organizations have provided essential funding for my creative projects: the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the South Carolina Arts Commission, and the University of South Carolina Office of the Provost. My colleagues at USC have been very supportive, especially those from the Extended University and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, as have my musician pals in Grey Egg. My wonderful in-laws, John
and Sybil Dennis, continue to offer emotional support and crucial babysitting services as I work on my fiction and other projects. Special thanks to the Elliott clan, which has provided a lifetime of love and inspiration, particularly my father, Joseph Elliott, my late mother, Frances, and my brothers, Joe, Roddy, and Bob. Finally, I am continuously indebted to those people who sustain my sanity on a daily basis, sticking with me through the darkness and the light: my great friend (and sister I never had) Libby Furr, my long-suffering husband, Steve Dennis, and my daughter, Eva Dennis.

© J. S. DENNIS

JULIA ELLIOTT
’s fiction has appeared in
Tin House
, the
Georgia Review, Conjunctions, Best American Fantasy
, and other publications. She has won a Pushcart Prize and a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award. Her debut novel,
The New and Improved Romie Futch
, will be published by Tin House Books in 2015. She teaches English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where she lives with her daughter and husband, John Dennis. She and Dennis are founding members of Grey Egg, an experimental music collective.