Jonah Man (25 page)

This should help calm my nerves, he said. Believe it or not, after all these years, I still get jittery before a show.

The boy nodded. Only when the main course arrived did he understand that the father had something he wanted to discuss. The boy watched him cant in his seat, drag the tines of his fork through a mass of grits.

My wife and I have been concerned, he started.

About my turn? the boy asked.

No, son, he said. You’re brilliant on the boards. You must know that.

He waited for the boy to speak or to nod as though he understood what was coming, but he only worked a pad of butter into his potato.

You’ve been with us for almost a full season now, the father continued. We can’t help but notice that nobody has written to you. Nobody has visited you. You haven’t asked to visit anybody. Did your father have people?

No sir.

Is there anyone we can contact for you? Anyone you would like to see?

The boy stared down at his plate. The father took a long swallow, patted his lips with his napkin.

Here is what most concerns my wife and me, he said. Onstage, it’s as if there’s no house large enough to contain you. Some nights I think you’re going to fly up into the struts. But offstage... well, it’s a different story. I’m not asking you to tell any secrets, but I want you to know that we’re very fond of you. If ever there’s something you want to talk about, please know that our relationship is more than professional. Do you understand?

Yes sir.

The father leaned forward, pressed his palms together.

Is there anything you’d like to talk about now? he asked. Any questions you might have? About anything at all?

The boy made himself look back at the father. He had no questions, only a feeling that nothing was real, not in his new life or in the one that was gone. It was as if he could see the world around him, but could not see himself in that world. This separation had always been with him, an invisible but undeniable fact. A personal fact, since other people seemed to experience life more keenly. He wanted to tell the father, but as he tried to form the words he felt as though he were submerged underwater, and the only way he could breathe again was to avert his eyes.

No rush, the father said. No rush at all.

That evening, the family clears the stage as the boy steps center for his solo. He stub-toe walks forward, leaps into a handstand, palms gripping the lip of the boards, then pushes off, somersaulting backwards, landing flush atop a mailbox. For a moment,
as the blood settles, he believes his father is shuffling on a barrel beside him. He windmills his arms, but the motion of his own limbs startles him, and he teeters backwards, nearly falls. The trumpeter hits a deliberate wrong note, long and strident. The boy recovers, stares up into the calcium ray. The eyes blinking back through that dense light appear detached, remote, and for an instant the boy feels as if he is up there with them, watching himself from the galleries. During the final beats of his solo, he breaks routine, ad-libbing a balance act, mixing bandy twists and barrel turns, bucking until his body blurs. When it’s over he is soaked through and trembling, and the crowd’s ovation does not draw him back onstage.

The author would like to thank the following people and organizations for their support, guidance and generosity: Laird Hunt, Selah Saterstrom, Eric Gould, the Evan Frankel Foundation, his teachers and classmates at the University of Denver, Patrick deWitt, Erik Anderson, Diane Kimmel, Sean Dingle, Brian Evenson, Gregory Howard, Linda Bensel-Meyers, Stephanie Krause, Michael Kimball, David Gruber, Wesley Gibson, Maureen Brady, Peter McGuigan, Stephanie Abou, Rachel Hecht, Matt Wise, Nina Shope, and (especially) Robert Lasner and Elizabeth Clementson.

Copyright © 2012 by Christopher Narozny All rights reserved.

 

 

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher. Please direct inquires too:

 

Ig Publishing
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Brooklyn, NY 11238
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Narozny, Christopher.
Jonah man / Christopher Narozny.p.cm.

eISBN : 978-1-935-43951-6

1. Vaudeville—United State—Fiction. 1. Title.
PS3614.A698J66 2012

2011051469