A Catalog of Birds

by Laura Harrington

  Nell falls asleep on the dock and wakes as the sun disappears behind the low hills opposite. Flanagan is still beside her, ears pricked as bats begin to flicker in and out of the beech tree.

  She sits up when she hears Harlow’s boat crossing the lake, the motor throttled down, a low growl. Hesitates, then strips off her clothes; slips into the water. It closes over her head then buoys her. The water, the water, she thinks, the beautiful, the treacherous water.

  Stroke by stroke she finds her rhythm: prayer, blessing, benediction.

  Billy.

  Harlow flashes his light once, twice, his pale shirt glowing in the dusk.

  When she reaches him, soon, soon, he will lean out, take her hands, and lift her up into the boat, out of the silver-skinned water, into the falling light.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  For being my first, last and best reader, always, thanks to David Rosen.

  For their wisdom, patience and superb guidance, I’m indebted to Stephanie Cabot and Ellen Goodson Coughtrey.

  For editorial insights and support, or the right idea at the right time, thanks to Charlotte Gordon, Lynne Hugo, Liza Rutherford, Kate Harrington-Rosen, Bill Britton, Liza Wiemer and Lynn Barclay.

  For generously sharing their experience and expertise, thanks to Bob Vinson, Bill Britton, Matt Adrian, Rob Morrow, Nadia Rosenthal and Roseann Vidal.

  For their patient attention to getting the book made, thanks to Emanuele Ragnisco and Eleanor Nussbaum.

  My work could not have a finer editor than Kent Carroll.

  The following works of nonfiction were invaluable while researching this book:

  Silent Spring, Rachel Carson; On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson, William Souder; Dispatches, Michael Herr; Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Laura Palmer; Apologies to the Iroquois, Edmund Wilson; Wolves & Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World, Susan Brind Morrow; What It Is Like to Go to War, Karl Marlantes; America’s Other Audubon, Joy M. Kiser; The Singing Life of Birds, Donald Kroodsma; I Have Heard My Praises Sung in Screams, Matt Adrian.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Laura Harrington has written dozens of plays, musicals, and operas, which have been produced in venues ranging from Off-Broadway to the Houston Grand Opera. Harrington has twice won both the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award in playwriting and the Clauder Competition for best new play in New England. Laura teaches playwriting at MIT where she was awarded the 2009 Levitan Prize. Alice Bliss, her first novel, won the 2012 Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction.