He tugs at it. Dad says this is where you went to college, he says, too far away for me to touch his arm.
How have you been doing, Jeffrey? I ask.
I broke my pinata, he says. I just broke it open, he shrugs, gulps, a small wrenching glug, looks at the ceiling. And there was nothing in it, he adds. But there's a circus coming pretty soon. There's gonna be a circus.
He stands there, away from me, afraid, holding his fingers. I am strange to him. Perhaps he thinks I have turned into Gramma.
Mom, are you my friend? he asks, barely audible, his face pale and homeless.
I nod yes.
Are you my mother?
I nod again, smiling, and he thinks about this, then approaches me, reaches and climbs up into my lap, curls into my breasts, clutching my gown, bursts into tears, his face crumpling against me. I want to go to the circus and see the horse people, he cries, wet and red, and I hold him close, warm, in my arms, in this room, and tell him we will go.
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Acknowledgements
'Foes' © Lorrie Moore. First published in the Guardian in 2008.
'Paper Losses' © Lorrie Moore. First published in The New Yorker in 2006.
'The Juniper Tree' © Lorrie Moore. First published in The New Yorker in 2005. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Excerpt from 'Epitaph' by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Copyright 1921. World rights assigned to and controlled by the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
'Debarking' © Lorrie Moore. First published in The New Yorker in 2003.
Birds of America (Volume) © Lorrie Moore, 1998. First published in the United States of America in 1998 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Faber and Faber Limited.
Like Life (Volume) © Lorrie Moore, 1988,1989,1990. First published in the United States in 1990 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited. First published in Great Britain in 1990 by Faber and Faber Limited. Most of the stories in this collection were originally published in somewhat different forms in the following publications: GQ: 'Two Boys'. The New York Times Book Review: 'Starving Again'. New York Woman: 'Vissi d'Arte'. The New Yorker: 'You're Ugly, Too' 'The Jewish Hunter'. Tampa Review: 'Places to Look for Your Mind'. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: 'Almost Like Being In Love' words by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe © 1947 Sam Fox Publishing Co Inc, USA. Sam Fox Publishing Co (London) Ltd, London w8 5 sw (Publishing) and Alfred Publishing Co, USA (Print). Administered in Europe by Faber Music Ltd. Reproduced by permission. All rights reserved. From A Child's History of Art by V.M. Hillyer and E.G. Huey, copyright 1933,1951 by D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc.; 1961 by Mercantile Safe Deposit And Trust Co. Used by permission of Dutton Children's Books, A Division of Penguin Young Readers Group, A Member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014- All rights reserved.
Anagrams (Volume) © M. L. Moore 1986. First published in the United States of America in 1986 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited. First published in Great Britain in 1987 by Faber and Faber Limited.
Self-Help (Volume) © M. L. Moore 1985. First published in the United States of America in 1985 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. First published in Great Britain in 1985 by Faber and Faber Limited. Some of the stories first appeared in Fiction International, MSS Magazine and Story Quarterly in the United States.
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