Peaceable Kingdom (mobi) (54 page)

So here’s the epiphany.

Do the math.

I’m fifty-six.

And I think that I’ve been waiting for, gradually coming to and then writing down the title of, this book for forty-five years. If that’s true, could be that child is still in here somewhere, leading on the beasts in me.

—Jack Ketchum, 2003

Copyrights for individual stories:

“Introduction” © 2003 by Dallas Mayr
“The Rifle” © 1996 by Dallas Mayr
“The Box” © 1994 by Dallas Mayr
“Mail Order” © 1994 by Dallas Mayr
“Luck” © 2000 by Dallas Mayr
“The Haunt” © 2001 by Dallas Mayr
“Megan’s Law” © 1999 by Dallas Mayr
“If Memory Serves” © 1996 by Dallas Mayr
“Father and Son” © 2000 by Dallas Mayr
“Mother and Daughter” © 2001 by Dallas Mayr
“The Business” © 1998 by Dallas Mayr
“When the Penny Drops” © 1998 by Dallas Mayr
“Rabid Squirrels in Love” © 1997 by Dallas Mayr
“Sundays” © 2000 by Dallas Mayr
“Twins” © 2003 by Dallas Mayr
“Amid the Walking Wounded” © 1998 by Dallas Mayr
“The Great San Diego Sleazy Bimbo Massacre” © 1998
by Dallas Mayr
“The Holding Cell” © 1993 by Dallas Mayr
“The Work” © 1997 by Dallas Mayr
“The Best” © 2000 by Dallas Mayr
“Redemption” © 1996 by Dallas Mayr
“The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard” © 1998 by Dallas
Mayr
“Chain Letter” © 1998 by Dallas Mayr
“Forever” © 2000 by Dallas Mayr
“Gone” © 2000 by Dallas Mayr
“Closing Time” © 2003 by Dallas Mayr
“The Rose” © 1994 by Dallas Mayr
“The Turning” © 1995 by Dallas Mayr
“To Suit the Crime” © 1992 by Dallas Mayr
“Lines: or Like Franco, Elvis is Still Dead” © 2003 by Dallas Mayr
“The Visitor” © 1998 by Dallas Mayr
“Snakes” © 1995 by Dallas Mayr
“Firedance” © 1998 by Dallas Mayr
“Afterword” © 2003 by Dallas Mayr