Pretty Ugly: A Novel by Kirker Butler

Author:Kirker Butler [Butler, Kirker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Humor, Literary, Retail
ISBN: 9781466850682
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

chapter twelve

“Look at me!” Miranda roared at her doctor. “Do I look like I give a good shit if my husband’s here or not?”

Her voice was used sandpaper, raspy and torn. It was just past eleven o’clock, and despite having no clue as to Ray’s whereabouts, Miranda was insisting she give birth immediately. “Get this girl out of me before midnight! Cut her out if you have to!”

While not superstitious, Miranda did believe in omens—the bumper sticker that gave Brixton her name, the pregnant police officer who took her statement (and her side) after the fight with Theresa in Knoxville—and there was no way on God’s green earth she was going to let her daughter be born on September 11.

“It would be like having your birthday on Christmas,” she said to Joan.

“Satan’s Christmas, maybe,” her mother muttered.

“Your birthday should be special, and I don’t want Brixton waking up every year, turning on the TV, and being reminded of a mass murder. That is not a happy birthday.”

* * *

Miranda and Ray had been married only a few months when she started to feel a little … bored. It wasn’t a question of happiness. They were both very happy, but they had settled into a routine so quickly that Miranda felt like she must have slept through the exciting part. Ray got a job at the hospital, and she worked as a receptionist for a kindly old dentist whose palsied hands shook so severely his patients often left with bigger problems than when they arrived. Bills were being paid on time, and the young couple had even managed to set some money aside for a cute little starter house that Miranda still hoped to someday leave for Thoroughbred Acres. It was all very comfortable, very pleasant, and very predictable: home by seven, dinner in front of the TV, sex, Letterman, sleep. Miranda was twenty-three.

And then 9/11 changed everything.

Staring at a perpetual loop of plane crashes and crumbling buildings while catatonic on her sofa, newlywed Miranda had the horrific realization that she would never be affected by the tragedy in the same way as the people in New York, Washington, or Pennsylvania. It was the most upsetting and isolating thought she’d had all morning. The greatest disaster of her generation was playing out in front of the world, and she had zero personal connection to it.

“I wish I was there,” she mumbled as CNN played “exclusive” new footage of the second tower falling. What’s wrong with wanting to be a part of something that changed the world? she thought. Shouldn’t every American want that? Miranda sure did. She wanted to feel the heat of the fires as she ran for her life, her lungs burning from the acrid, polluted air. She wanted to be candidly photographed sitting on a curb, covered in ash, drinking from a bottle of water given to her by a stranger. She wanted to tell her story to CNN. But she didn’t have a story to tell.

So she made one up.

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