Sunset City (16 page)

I veered onto the Northwest Freeway. I passed the tollway and kept driving, floating through the endless neighborhoods of identical houses, the culs-de-sac lined with progressively younger trees. At Fry Road the land emptied into darkness,
no shape discernible beyond the white-lit lanes of the freeway. I parked along the shoulder and sat on the trunk of the car with a cigarette, studying the glow to the east that was my city. Nothing but gray light at the bottom of the sky. A truck's wake washed over me, the force of air so strong I could have let it knock me down.

I knew Sally was right—I could do something good with the money. College or whatever. I could apply to schools all over the country. Decide where I wanted to live. I had no idea how to spend that kind of money, or what to want. But I had plenty of time to figure it out.

On my way back to town I stopped by a Goodwill and piled Danielle's boxes in front of the donations door. Afterwards my car felt lighter, zipped easily down the freeway. I went to the Fiesta in my neighborhood. I put apples in my basket, pasta, cereal and yogurt, cheese and bread. At home I put the groceries away and made a sandwich. It seemed like years since I'd done such a simple, normal thing.

Enormous gratitude to the Ucross Foundation and the Mississippi Arts Council for their generous support while I was working on this book. Thank you to my friends and readers: Tom Franklin, Alexander Chee, Mary Miller, Richard Lange, Megan Abbott, Ace Atkins, Deborah Barker, Jennifer Adrian, Beth Troncoso, Kelly Wilson, and Lindsay Schnetzer.

I owe a debt to Henry Dunow for believing in this project and coaxing it into shape. Thanks to my agent, Duvall Osteen, and my editors, Zachary Wagman and Angus Cargill.

Most of all, thank you to Chris Offutt, for everything, everything.

MELISSA GINSBURG
was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of the poetry collection
Dear Weather Ghost
and the poetry chapbook “Arbor.” She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

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Dear Weather Ghost

Cover design by Allison Saltzman

Cover photograph © Gregory Smithey

SUNSET CITY.
Copyright © 2016 by Melissa Ginsburg. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-242970-4

EPub Edition APRIL 2016 ISBN 9780062429711

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