Shout for her? Run to her?
But he’s too afraid of the dead, so he waves, the woman’s face alight with resurrection.
“Is that your mamma, son?” Dowse asks. “She is a vision of Heaven.”
His father says, “You come on down from that stage.”
“Is that your daddy, son?”
He says, “I think that’s my mamma,”
“Then go to your mamma, son. Go on.”
Rising from the dirt and tangle of sleeping wet limbs this beautiful woman stands up. Is it her? She stands and stretches toward the stage.
“Mamma, I’m here! I’m right here!”
Deep within his heart, the vessel of his soul, he thanks the preacher and wants to say a prayer, his first prayer. Where does it come from? Not sure how, but the wish passes through him, up out the throat, and to his lips, these lips, where I say a wish out loud. Oh, take away the quiet creeping fear. With every passing syllable, the fear is further abated: Dear Lord, let it be her. And with enough luck, this woman waking up from the outside place, where there is no need for God, O God, please let it be her. Think on the black sow, how you won’t have to kill her after all because Death, I swear, is beaten today. Death be now and forever undone. Amen.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Books are only partly products of solitude, and so I must thank the following persons, places, and things:
Tom Cheshire, Jim Hanks, Joseph Salvatore, Matt DeBenedictis, Lauren Culley, Jason Tougaw, Duncan Faherty, John Weir, Carmiel Banasky, Bill Cheng, Alex Gilvarry, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Noa Jones, Tennessee Jones, Brianne Kennedy, Phil Klay, Liz Moore, Jessica Soffer, John Trotta, Sunil Yapa.
Jon Butler, Christine Heyrman, Paul Conkin.
True believers: O.G. Carrie Howland, plus all of Donadio and Olson (interns, too); and the deeply insightful Sarah Bowlin, along with the lovely people at Henry Holt.
Thanks to Jason Richman and the enthusiastic support of United Talent.
The Housing Works Bookstore Café; the dark and low-ceilinged stacks of the New York Society Library; the City University of New York; the Queens College English Department; and Hunter College, especially the Hunter MFA faculty.
Jon Butler’s Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People; Christine Leigh Heyrman’s Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt; Paul Conkin’s Cane Ridge: America’s Pentecost; Sonic Youth, Silver Session for Jason Knuth; Nels Cline and Devin Sarno, Edible Flowers; Dirty Three, Cinder.
Mike Watt, at The Point, Atlanta, Georgia, 1997.
My family.
And best for last: my long-suffering lady, Kate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SCOTT CHESHIRE earned his MFA from Hunter College. He is the interview editor at the Tottenville Review and teaches writing at the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. His work has been published in Slice, AGNI, Guernica, Narrative 4, and the Picador anthology The Book of Men. He lives in New York City.
HIGH AS THE HORSES’ BRIDLES. Copyright © 2014 by Scott Cheshire. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design: David Shoemaker
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Cheshire, Scott, 1973–
High as the horses’ bridles: a novel/Scott Cheshire.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-8050-9821-1 (hardcover)—ISBN 978-0-8050-9822-8 (electronic book) 1. Faith—Fiction. 2. Fathers and sons—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.H4845H55 2014
813'.6—dc23
2013031099
First Edition: July 2014
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
High as the Horses' Bridles: A Novel Page 28
