The Red Car (20 page)

The girl, Judy's niece, had also looked at me, a question in her glance. She had no idea who I was. She had messed up her verse, but then she took a breath and continued. I had not ruined her rite of passage. She was fine.

She looked just like Judy.

“Just look at her,” Judy said.

I did. I looked at her. I looked. Judy's niece? Her daughter? Could that have been her daughter? I wondered what I would say to her. I could not remember her name, written on the invitation. I wondered what I would say to her. What I would tell her about Judy and how she died. And how she had lived. I wondered where I would live next. I would not go home. I wondered what kind of food would be served at the reception. I was hungry.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Liveright/Norton for making this book possible: Katie Adams, Cordelia Calvert, and Peter Miller, I am grateful for everything that you do.

Thanks to Alex Glass, my smart and loyal agent, for sticking by me.

Thanks to my smart and loyal friends and family, who have also stuck by me (in alphabetical order): Sarah Bardin, Lauren Cerand, Ann Dermansky, Ira Dermansky, Julie Dermansky, Michael Dermansky, Nina Dermansky Fauth, Melissa Johnson, Heather Paxson, Stefan Helmreich, Shelley Salamensky, Talya Shomron, Lizzie Skurnick, Adina Taubman, and Sondra Wolfer.

BY THE
SAME AUTHOR

BAD MARIE

TWINS

The Red Car
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Marcy Dermansky

All rights reserved

First Edition

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Book design by Barbara M. Bachman

Jacket design by Yang Kim

Jacket photograph by Kerrick James /Corbis

Production manager: Anna Oler

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Dermansky, Marcy, 1969–author.

Title: The red car / Marcy Dermansky.

Description: First edition. | New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a Division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]

Identifiers: LCCN 2016019280 | ISBN 9781631492334 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Self-actualization (Psychology) in women— Fiction. | Self-realization in women—Fiction. | Life change events—Fiction. | Bereavement—Fiction. | Grief—Fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3604.E7545 R43 2016 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019280

ISBN 978-1-63149-234-1 (e-book)

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