The New Yorker Stories

Also by Ann Beattie

Distortions

Chilly Scenes of Winter

Secrets and Surprises

Falling in Place

The Burning House

Love Always

Where You’ll Find Me

Picturing Will

What Was Mine

Another You

My Life, Starring Dara Falcon

Park City

Perfect Recall

The Doctor’s House

Follies

Walks with Men

Scribner

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are

products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2010 by Ann Beattie

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book

or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Scribner Subsidiary

Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Scribner hardcover edition November 2010

SCRIBNER and design are registered trademarks of The Gale Group, Inc., used

under license by Simon & Schuster, Inc., the publisher of this work.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact

Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event.

For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau

at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010032933

ISBN 978-1-4391-6874-5

ISBN 978-1-4391-6876-9 (ebook)

“Zalla,” “Second Question,” from Park City: New and Selected Stories by Ann Beattie, copyright © 1998 by Irony and Pity, Inc. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

“A Vintage Thunderbird,” “Colorado,” “The Lawn Party,” “Distant Music,” “Secrets and Surprises,” “Weekend,” “Tuesday Night,” “Shifting,” from Secrets and Surprises by Ann Beattie, copyright © 1976, 1977, 1978 by Ann Beattie. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.

“Home to Marie,” “Television,” “Horatio’s Trick,” from What Was Mine by Ann Beattie, copyright © 1991 by Irony and Pity, Inc. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.

“Coney Island,” “Lofty,” “Times,” “Heaven on a Summer Night,” “In the White Night,” “Janus,”

“Summer People,” “Skeletons,” and “Where You’ll Find Me,” reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from Where You’ll Find Me and Other Stories by Ann Beattie. Copyright © 1986 by Irony and Pity, Inc. All rights reserved.

“The Women of This World” reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from Perfect Recall by Ann Beattie. Copyright © 2001 by Irony and Pity, Inc. All rights reserved.

“Find and Replace,” “The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation,” and “That Last Odd Day in L.A.,” reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from Follies by Ann Beattie. Copyright © 2005 by Irony and Pity, Inc. All rights reserved.

The following stories appear courtesy of Ann Beattie: from Distortions (1976), “A Platonic Relationship,” “Fancy Flights,” “Wolf Dreams,” “Dwarf House,” “Snakes’ Shoes,” “Vermont,” “Downhill,” and “Wanda’s”; from The Burning House (1982), “The Cinderella Waltz,” “The Burning House,” “Waiting,” “Greenwich Time,” “Gravity,” “Running Dreams,” “Afloat,” “Girl Talk,” “Like Glass,” and “Desire”; previously uncollected, “Moving Water,” “One Day,” “Coping Stones,” and “The Confidence Decoy.”

For Lincoln

Contents

A Platonic Relationship ¦ April 8, 1974

Fancy Flights ¦ October 21, 1974

Wolf Dreams ¦ November 11, 1974

Dwarf House ¦ January 20, 1975

Snakes’ Shoes ¦ March 3, 1975

Vermont ¦ April 21, 1975

Downhill ¦ August 18, 1975

Wanda’s ¦ October 6, 1975

Colorado ¦ March 15, 1976

The Lawn Party ¦ July 5, 1976

Secrets and Surprises ¦ October 26, 1976

Weekend ¦ November 15, 1976

Tuesday Night ¦ January 3, 1977

Shifting ¦ February 21, 1977

Distant Music ¦ July 4, 1977

A Vintage Thunderbird ¦ February 27, 1978

The Cinderella Waltz ¦ January 29, 1979

The Burning House ¦ June 11, 1979

Waiting ¦ June 20, 1979

Greenwich Time ¦ October 29, 1979

Gravity ¦ June 2, 1980

Running Dreams ¦ February 16, 1981

Afloat ¦ September 21, 1981