Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ceorge Saunders
My Flamboyant
Grandson. 463
s()und only lnessagesbcing beamcd to me and mc alone via various Kakio So I said to myself, Get off the wall, old man, blood or no blood, just
,
Aural Focussers,such as one dr.rt shoutcd out to me between Forty-sec- keep the legs moving and soon enough you,ll be there. And off we went,
ond anci Forty-third, "Mr. Petrillo, you chose Burger King eight times last me hobbling, Teddy holding my arm, making decent time, and I think we
iiscal ycrr but only tw() times thus fbr this fiscal year, pleasedo not forsake would have made the curtain. Except suddenly there appeared a citizen
us no% thcre is a store one block north!," in the voice of Broadway star Helper, who asked were we from out of town, and was that why, via re-
F,laine lVcston, while at Forty-third a light-pole-mounted Focusser moving my shoes, I had caused my Everly Strips to be rendered
shouted, "Golh'. Leonard, remember your childhood on the farm in Inoperativel
Or.reontal Why not reclaim those roots with a Starbucks Country Roastf," I should say here that I am no stranger to innovative approaches to
in a celcbrity rural voice I could not identify, possibly Buck Owens, and advertising, having pioneered the use of towablc signboards in oneonta
thcn, bt'st of all, in the doorway of PLC Electronics, a life-size Gene Kelly back in the Nixon years, when I moved a fleet of thirty around town with
hologram suddenll, ap;leared,tap-dancing, saying, "Leonard, my data in- a Dodge Dart, wearing a suit that today would be found comic. By which
dicates vou're a bit of an old-timer like myselfl Gosh, in our day life was I mean I have no problem with the concepr of the Everly strip. That is
simpler, wasn't it, lronardl Why not come in and let Frankie Z. explain not why I had my shoes off. I am as pauiotic as rhe next guy. Rather, as I
thc latcst gizmos!" And he looked so real I called out to Teddy, "Teddy, have said, it was due to my bleeding feet.
l<>okthcre, Gene Kelly, do you remcmber I mentioned him to you as one I told all this to the Citizen Helper, who asked if I was aware that, by
of the arl-time great dancers?"But Teddy of course did not seeGene Kelly, rendering my strips Inoperative, I was sacrificing a terrific opportunity to
(icne B-elly not being one of his Prefbrences,but instead saw his hero Celebrate My Preferencesl
Babar, sr.r'inginga small rnonkey on his trunk while saying that his data in- And I said yes) yes, I regretted this very much.
dicatcd that Tccldy did not yet own a Nintendo. He said he was sorry about my feet, he himself having a trick elbow,
So that was fun, that was very New York, but what was not so fun and that he would be happy to forget this unfortunate incident if I would
was, by the time wc got through the line at the Redemption Center, it only put my shoes back on and complete the rest of my walk extremely
was ten minutcs until showtimc, and my feet had swollen up the way they slowly, looking energetically to both left and right, so that the higher den-
do sho,'tly betore they begin spontaneously bleeding, which they have sity of Messagesthus received would compensate ficr those I had missed.
dr>necvcr sincc a winter spent in thc fieezing muck <lf Cho-Bai, Korea. It And I admit, I was a little short with that Helper, and said, young
is srxncthing I have learned to live u'ith. If I can sit, that is helpful. If I can man, these dark patches here on my socks are blood, do you or do you
lean agrinst something, also good. Best of all, if I can take my shoesoff. not see themf
!\4rich I did, leaning against a wall. Which was when his face changed and he said, please do not snap ar
All around and above us were those towering walls of light, curving me, sir, I hope you are aware of the fact that I can write you upl
across l;uilding fronts, embcddcd in the sidewalks,custom-fitted to light And then I made a mistake.
polcs: c cartooll lion eating a man in a suit; a rain of gold coins falling into Because as I looked at that Citizen Helper-his round face, his pale
the car,oc of a naked rain-forest family; a woman in lingerie running a sideburns, the way his feet turned in-it seemed to me that I knew him.
bottlc ,lf Pepsi between her breasts;the Merrill Lynch talking fist asking, or rather, it seemed that he could not be so very different from me when
"Are 1,ou kicking assor kissing it)"; a perf-ecthuman rear, dancing; a fake a young man, not so different from the friends of my youth-from
I yas
tlock of geeseturning into a ficld of Bebe logos; a dying grandmother's |effie DeSoto, say)who once fought a Lithuanian gang that had stuck an
room lrllcd with roses by a FedEx man who then holds up a card saying M-80 in the assof a cat, or from Ken Larmer, who had such a sweet tenor
"No (iharge." voice and died stifling a laugh in the hills above Koi-Jeng.
A.r:d standing beneath all that bounty was our litde Teddy, tiny and I brought out a tlventy and, leaning over, said, Look, please, the kid
sad, wirclse grandtlther could not even manage to get him into one just really wants to see this show
c r um n' 1' s hou' . Which is when he pulled our his pad and began to write!
E&,.,,
465 . C,e:rgcSaurrders Grandson. 467
My Flamboyant
Nou', cven being fiom Oneonta, I knew that being written up does cided to become an actor. This from a boy too timid to trick-or-treat!
not take ()nc or two minutcs, we would be standing there at least half an This from the boy we once found waiking home from school in rears,
hour, aftcr which rve would havc to go to an Active Complaints Center, padlocked to his own bike! There are no more late -night crying episodes,
where thcv would check our Strips fbr Operabiliry and make us watch he no longer writes on his arms with permanent rt" t."p. out t,i
that correctivc vidco callcd "Robust Economy, Super Moral Climate!," bed in the morning, anxious to get to school, and -"rk.r,
dons his scarf, and is al-
which I had already been madc to watch three times last winter, when I ready sitting at the table eating breakfast when we come down.
was ()ut of work and rvc could not af-ford cable. And we would totally The other day as he got off the bus I heard him say, to his bus driver.
miss "Babar Sings"! cool as a cucumber, Seeyou at the Oscars.
Pleasc, I saicl,please, we have seen plenty of personalizedmessages,
via both rhe building-mounted miniscrccns at eye level and those sud- When an Everly Reader is reading, then suddenly stops, it is not hard to
clcnly out-thrusting Cybec Enrergent Screens,we have learned plenty fbr trace, and within a week I received a certified letter setting my fine ar one
onc day. honcst to God we have- thousand dollars, and stating that, in lieu of the fine, I could elect to re -
furd ire said, Sir, since when do you make the call as far as when you turn to the origrnating location of my infiaction (they included a map)
have rece'vcd enor.rghuseful information from our Artistic Partnersl And and, under the supervision of that cittzen Helper, retrace my steps, shoes
just kept ,.r,ritingme up. on, thus reclaiming a significant opportuniry to celebrate My preferences.
Well, there I was, in my socks, there was Teddy, with a scaredlook in This, to me, is not America.
his eycs I hadn't seen since his toddler days, when he had such a fear of What America is, to me, is a guy doesn't want to buy, you let him not
_
chickcns that we could ncver buy Rosemont eggs, due to the cartoon bug you respect his not buying. A gny has a crazy notion different from
chicken c'n the crrton, or, if we did, had to first cut the chickcn off, with your qazy notion, you pat him on the back and say hey, pal, nice crazy
scissorsue kept in the car for that pulpose. So I made a quick decision, notion, let's go have a beer. America to me should be shouting all the
and seizel that Citizen Helper's ticket pad and flung it into the street, time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong) some of th.-
shcluting at Teddy, Run! Run! nuts) but, please,not just one droning glamorous reasonablevoice.
And :un hc did. And run I did. And while that Citizen Helper floun- But do the math: a day's pay, plus train ticket, plus meals, plus taxis to
dcred in the strcet, torn between chasing us and retrieving his pad, we avoid ttre bleeding feet, srill that is less than one thousand.
raced dori'n Broadway, and glancing back over my shoulder I saw a hulk- So down I went.
ing youn;; nlan stick out his foot, and down that Helpcr went, and soon I That Citizen Helper, whose name was Rob, said he was glad about
was handing our tickets to the same stcrn Mr. Ernesti, who was now less my change of heart. Every time a voice shot into my ear, ielling me
stcn], an(l in we went, and took our seatsras the starsappearedoverhead things about myself I already knew, every time a ceiebriry hol.gram
and thc Lisner was transtbrmed into a nighttime jungle . walked up like an old friend, Rob checked a box o.t Infraction
And suddcnly there was Babar, looking with longing toward Paris, correction Form and said, Isn't that amazing, Mr. petrillo,-y that we can
u'hcrc thc ()ld I.ady was saying that she had dreamed of someone named do tlat, that we can know you so well, that .. ."r, help you identi$r the
Babar, urd dici any of us knowwho this Babarwas,andwhere he might things you want and needf
bc founcil And Tcddy knew the answer, fiom the Original Cast CD, And I would say,Yes, Rob, that is amazing, sick in the gut but trying
which rv;rs llabar is within us, in all of our hearts, and he shouted it out to keep my mind on rhe five hundred bucks I was saving and on alr the
u.'ith all :lrc othcr childrcn, as the Old Lady began singing "The King dance classesthat would buy.
In s ideof Y ou. " fu for Teddy, as I write this it is nearly midnight and he is tapping in
Anci lct mc tcll you, fiom that moment everything changed for the room above. He looks like a bird, our boy, he watches the same musical
-t'cddv. I am happy to report he has joined the play at school. He wearsa fifteen times in a row. walking through the mall he suddenly emits a ran-
scarf evcrvwhcre he goes, rhr()wing it over his shoulder with what can dol line of dialogue and lunges off to the side, doing a dancl srcp that re-
onlv be ,lescribecias bravado, and says,whenever asked, that he has de- semblesa stumble, spilling his drink, plowing into a group of incredulous,
468 . Af hrlSharma
by Sleep. 469
Surrounded
snickering Oneontans. He looks like no one else, acts like no one else, his ' family had moved from India to
..AjZ" eueens, New york, rwo years
clothes are increasingly lik" plumage, late at night he choreographs using earlier.The accident occurred during the boys' summer vacadon,
on a visit
plastic Army men, he fits no mold and has no friends, but I believe in my with their aunt and uncle in Arlington, Virginia. After
the accidlnt, Ajay,s
heart that someday something beautiful may come from him. (2002) mother cam to Arlington, where ihe r"aitel to ,ee rRma'vafit,*.L.ou.r.
At the hospital, she told the doctors and nurses that
her sofi had been ac_
cepted into the Bronx High School of Science, in the
hdpe that by high-
lighting his intel.ligence she would move them to make,i greater
AKH IL SHAR M A his behalf. Within a few weeks of the accident, rhe irs,jr*i.
."-f*y
efforr on
,"ia
that Amanshouldbe ransferredto a l"* .#;riyl;. ;il;:;
in New Delhi, India tn 1972,Akhil Sharmaimmigratedto the United term one. But only a few of thesewerc any good,3nd those*"r.'fuil, ""u
'.. / *d
Ajay'smother refusddto moveAman untii spap openedin
one of them.
"
so she remainedin fulington, and Ajay rt"y.4g''too, and his father visited
and works a\ investmentbanker in NewYork By the time he from Queenson the weqkends*h"r, i. **"1;.kid ;i"y;;r;nrolled
magazinesas the $tlontic and
thre:, he had alneadypublishedstoriesin such magazines at the local public school'andin Septemberf{estartednftn-gr"a..
the New Yorker:l\n interview whh the Atlontic,Sharma tal$ about what Before the accident,Ajqy had never pfyed much. In lidia,
he and his
brother used to go with their mother t/ttt. t"-pte
driv:s his characterl:1'My characters are motivated by a dgfire to improve every Tuesday night,
but that was mostly because there wa/a good d.isarestaurant
all-represents a nearby. In
his family wenj to \-# oJy on important holy days and
Fother:was pub- F:1.", "
birthdays.But shortly after Ajay's',f'othe, tame to Arlington, she moved
lishrd in 2000 and won the PEN/Hemingwayaward first fidion.Three of his
into the room thar he and his bro/er had shared during"the ,umm..
stor,es,rncludrng "Surrounded'pySleepl'have selected for the Eest madean altar in a corner. She "rrd
Amlrtcon Short Stories.Discussin|'{row he a story Sharma has said, /{rew.an old flowereJ;fr..i *ra
board box that had once held On "r.r-"
top, sheput a claylamp, an
'Wnen I was younger I started with\he and would work up to thal incense-stick felevision.
holder, and posty'ardsdepictrng various gods. Theie was
also
No v I start with an incident that could in the storyThe difficutty a postcardof Mahatma Ga/dhi. she exprafted to Ajay that
God could
of starting this way is that the story ts \nger plot-driven.Youhaveto keep takeany.form; the picturef M"h"t-" Gan\i ,h.r" becausehe had
your reader hooked through br inte\est in the way you tell the story appearedto her in a drelm after the accidentrand
-", told her that Aman
rnst:ad of through the promiseof payoffi' \\\\ would recover and
least half an hour befor/ the altar ivery mornin
'humility.
At first,
.,,o., she prayef wrrn
Jrrs praycp aDsolute humtlty. *Wh\tever you do will be
with absolute
1^l
goo. because you ape doing it,', she murmured
by Sleep to the posicards of Ram
theirlipswithwaterandrice.Mi[;;A;Jn,
il fnlyrj',,oaubiryl
onty waterr he did not like ro eat. As weeks passedand Aman did
ro,
?".ryt'
Ar. August afterr7.6on,when Ajay wasten yearsold; his elder brother, nor fecov.er rn-trfre to return to the Bronx High
school'lf Science for
\-/lnran, dove iry/o a pool and struck his headon the cement bottom. rne nrst.clay otflasses, his mother began doing things
thar.qalled amen_
For threc minutegl he lay there unconscious. Two boyi'continued to uon to her pi9ty. She sometimes held the prayer
lamp until'it blstered
swim, Kicking aDl rplashing, until finally Aman was spo;ed below them. her palms. lnstead of kneeling beficre rhe altar,
she lay face diwn. she
Water nad entq,fed through his nose and mouth. It had filled his stomach. fasted twice d week. Her attempts to sway God
were not so different
His lu,rgs collapscd. By the time he was pulled out, he could no longer from Ajay's performing somersaults to amuse
his aunt, and they made
think, talk, chew, or roll over in his sleep. God seem human to Ajay.