Byrd (22 page)

The finches flutter and chirp.
Who-can-it be be be?

“Hold your tiny horses,” she tells them.

As always when she hears the bell, she moves with a deliberate, practiced calm. She sets down her wineglass, turns the curry to a low simmer, walks through the house to the front door—
I have hopes but no expectations
—and opens it.

Acknowledgments

Emma Patterson, you are my dream agent. Thanks for your belief, intelligence, enthusiasm, and friendship. Guy Intoci, I could not have made up a more perfect editor. Dan Wickett, Steven Gillis, Steven Seighman, and everyone at Dzanc Books, thanks for your vision and commitment. Caitlin Hamilton Summie, thanks for your grace in helping to usher this book into the world.

For their generous support, I thank the North Carolina Arts Council, Vermont Studio Center, the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, and—my home away from home—the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where much of this book was written.

Thanks to my mother, Martha Church, who taught me to love books, and to my late father, Max Church, from whom I inherited the habit of storytelling. Thanks to my brother and sister, Andy Church and Marty Hargrave; my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Joni Walser and Wendell Hargrave; and my niece, Morgan Hargrave, for their unfailing love and help. To Marty, particular thanks for our discussions about childbirth.

Thanks to my high school English teacher and champion, the late Mildred Ann Raper, who opened the world to me. Thanks to Laurel Goldman for pressing me to write this novel, and to the brilliant teachers who guided me: Patricia Henley, Angela Davis-Gardner, and Jill McCorkle.

Thanks to Joyce Allen, Paula Blackwell, Mia Bray, Nora Gaskin, Nell Joslin, Nancy Peacock, and Pat Walker, whose critiques were invaluable. Thanks also to Laura Herbst and Ruth Moose for inspiration and encouragement.

Thanks to my comrades Elizabeth Kuniholm, Henry Temple, Melissa Hill, Wade Smith, and Robert Zaytoun for making it possible for me to balance my writing practice with my law practice.

Thanks to Edith Votta of the Children's Home Society for educating me on adoption procedures in North Carolina; to David Baumann of Reno for introducing me to the legend of the water babies; to muralist Clark Hipolito; to astrologer Randy Wasserstrom; to my brother-in-law and fire expert Bob Rodriguez; and to Patti Huopana, formerly of Nice Price Books in Raleigh.

Thanks to the birth parents who trusted me with their stories: Megan K., Richard K., and Cathy P.

My friends have sustained me in ways large and small. To all of you, my affection and abiding thanks.

For extraordinary acts of kindness with respect to this book, thanks to Bill Verner, Elaine Neil Orr, Anna Jean Mayhew, and Dr. Lucy Daniels.

Last and most, my love and thanks to Anthony Ulinski. You are my reward for everything.

The Dzanc Books r
E
print Series

The Dzanc Books r
E
print Series is dedicated to publishing great works of contemporary literature that are deserving and clearly will benefit from having their work appear in electronic form. Our efforts include works that have recently gone out of print, books in print that have yet to be converted to e-form, as well as titles where the author holds the eBook rights and is looking for a publishing partner for the electronic version of their book.

For more information and the current list of available titles:
http://www.dzancbooks.org/reprint-catalog/

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This project is supported in part by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Copyright © 2014 by Kim Church

Book design by Steven Seighman

978-1-4804-9353-7

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