The Grand Tour

by Adam O'Fallon Price

  The field was a bright and unlikely emerald bathed in the last hour or so of daylight before the sun would dip below the western tree line. It was filled with people self-consciously, strenuously, enjoying what might very well be the last nice day of the year, and the area was enlivened by a feeling of happy desperation. Richard walked through it all: past an underdressed, laughing couple wrapped shivering in their blanket; through an absurdly circumferous Frisbee circle; by a group of young bearded men in sweatshirts and blazers drinking beer from plastic cups; near two young women of unfair, infuriating beauty; alongside a dreadlocked man in a serape walking a large gray poodle; and finally into a small, unoccupied patch of brownish grass in the middle of the meadow. He lowered himself. The sky was blue, but white clouds edged in over the park’s southern and eastern borders, peering down like adults crowding curiously around a newborn’s bassinet. Is baby happy? What does baby want? He still wanted so much, but just for the moment he tried to forget himself and become part of the overwhelming life that surrounded him. For the moment, it was enough.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to:

  J. Robert Lennon, Stephanie Vaughn, and Michael Koch, for your mentorship and guidance; Brownie and Tom Watkins, for your generosity and support; Matthew Dessem, Chris Drangle, Joe Neal, and Jesse Paddock, for your reads and notes; Gerald Howard and Samantha Shea, for your hard work on this novel’s behalf. And to Bill and Pat Price, without whom I would neither exist, nor love books.

  About the Author

  ADAM O’FALLON PRICE was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Saudi Arabia and Knoxville, Tennessee. He received an MFA from Cornell University. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The Iowa Review, EPOCH, Glimmer Train, Narrative, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife in Iowa City, Iowa.

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