Fugue State by Brian Evenson

Author:Brian Evenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-56689-267-4
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Published: 2011-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

A month later, by cutting a few corners, Kossweiller had hit his own ninety over ninety. He had several hundred manuscript pages, all of them terrible—even the recipes led to practically inedible food—but it was there. Setting his teeth, he took the typescript to Cinchy.

“Karswelder,” Cinchy said. “Back so soon? Can your servitude be over? All there?” Cinchy said. “All ninety of them, and all of them over age ninety?”

“Yes,” said Kossweiller. “It’s done.”

“Seems as though you’ve done it,” said Cinchy. “Seems you’re free to go.”

Kossweiller headed toward the door, then stopped. “That’s it?” he said. “That’s the end?”

“What else would there be?”

“You’re not going to double-check?”

“Why should I double-check, Karse? I trust you.”

“You’re not going to burn the manuscript or humiliate me in some other way?”

“Karse, Karse,” said Cinchy. “Trust me. The last thing I want to do is get rid of all the hard work you did. Just the opposite, my friend.”

Kossweiller nodded. He left Cinchy’s office and started down the hall to his own office. Halfway there, he stopped, turned back.

“What do you mean ‘just the opposite’?” he asked from Cinchy’s door.

“Hmmm? You again, Koss?” said Cinchy, looking up from his desk. “Just what it sounded like. I’m going to publish the fucker.”

“Really?”

“Of course. And to show my appreciation, I’ll make sure that ‘Edited by Philip Kossweiller’ appears on both cover and spine. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if your name wasn’t in larger print than anything else. Back copy something like ‘Esteemed literary editor Philip Kossweiller’s personal choices for what’s best in literature for the older set,’ along with talk of a ‘personal quest,’ and whatnot. I’ll make sure that it gets reviewed everywhere. And I’ll save it for release until just the right moment.”

“You wouldn’t,” said Kossweiller.

“I would,” said Cinchy. “No dolls, Kossweiller!” he said, shouting now. “Never dolls! You should have remembered that.”

Dazed, Kossweiller retreated. It was true, he thought. Cinchy had twisted the knife, and what was worse was it was a knife Kossweiller himself had given him.

He slowly made his way back to his office. Anders was there outside, fiddling with the change in his pockets.

“I hear you’re leaving us, Koss,” he said. “Sorry to see you go.”

“You know already?”

“Word gets around,” he said. “That and Cinchy called to give me the Verenson series. That doesn’t upset you, does it?”

“No,” said Kossweiller, “you’re welcome to it.”

Anders, perhaps feeling sentimental, perhaps trying only to put on a good front, attempted and bungled a hug, then left. Kossweiller found a box, began to pack up his desk. Cinchy, he knew, would wait until the worst possible moment to release the book, probably timing it to coincide with En Masse, if Kossweiller could ever find somewhere to publish it.

But, he thought, there was something he could do in the meantime.

He opened the bottom drawer and took out the doll. True, he had promised to burn the box, but Cinchy hadn’t said anything about the doll. Technically, he had kept his promise.

He unpinned the note, “Love from B,” and wrote on the doll’s chest with permanent marker, 90/90.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.