Author/Uploaded by T. C. Boyle
Cover Title Part I 1. They Were Like Jewelry 2. Entomophage 3. Field Study 4. High Tide 5. Apis Mellifera 6. Bug Boy 7. Willie II, Willie I 8. No Matter How Many Blows 9. The Wedding 10. Tahoe Part II 11. She Didn’t Like Flying 12. It Was A Rowboat 13. Peeling A Grape 14. The Twins...
Cover Title Part I 1. They Were Like Jewelry 2. Entomophage 3. Field Study 4. High Tide 5. Apis Mellifera 6. Bug Boy 7. Willie II, Willie I 8. No Matter How Many Blows 9. The Wedding 10. Tahoe Part II 11. She Didn’t Like Flying 12. It Was A Rowboat 13. Peeling A Grape 14. The Twins 15. The Next-To-Last Chrysalis 16. Sierra 17. Python Mom 18. Ashes 19. After The Funeral Part III 20. In The Night, When She Couldn’t Sleep 21. The Heat 22. What is Flammable and What is Not 23. Eaten From Within 24. The Fire This Time 25. It Was A Skiff 26. It All Pales Acknowledgments Also by T. Coraghessan Boyle Copyright iv v vii viii ix 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 BLUE SKIES A Novel T. CORAGHESSAN BOYLE Liveright Publishing Corporation A Division of W.W. Norton & Company Celebrating a Century of Independent Publishing For Marie Alex and Griff Stevens Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see. — IRVING BERLIN ALSO BY T. CORAGHESSAN BOYLE NOVELS Talk to Me (2021) Outside Looking In (2019) The Terranauts (2016) The Harder They Come (2015) San Miguel (2012) When the Killing’s Done (2011) The Women (2009) Talk Talk (2006) The Inner Circle (2004) Drop City (2003) A Friend of the Earth (2000) Riven Rock (1998) The Tortilla Curtain (1995) The Road to Wellville (1993) East Is East (1990) World’s End (1987) Budding Prospects (1984) Water Music (1982) SHORT STORIES I Walk Between the Raindrops (2022) The Relive Box (2017) T. C. Boyle Stories II (2013) Wild Child & Other Stories (2010) The Human Fly (2005) Tooth and Claw (2005) After the Plague (2001) T. C. Boyle Stories (1998) Without a Hero (1994) If the River Was Whiskey (1989) Greasy Lake & Other Stories (1985) Descent of Man (1979) ANTHOLOGIES DoubleTakes (2004; coedited with K. Kvashay-Boyle) 1 THEY WERE LIKE JEWELRY THEY WERE LIKE JEWELRY, LIVING JEWELRY, AND SHE COULD see herself wearing one wrapped round her shoulders to Bobo’s or the Cornerstone and sitting at a sidewalk table while people strolled by and pretended not to notice. It would make a statement, that was for sure. She’d put on a tube top so you could see the contrast it made with her bare skin—black, definitely black, and she’d wear her black jeans too and maybe her fedora—and she’d just look down at her drink or up at Todd as if nothing were out of the ordinary. And he’d go along with it too, she was sure he would—they were in that phase of their relationship where he’d given her a ring and they’d moved in together and she could have just about anything she wanted. Except a baby. Are you joking, or what? I’m no way even close to being ready for that, and plus the expense, Jesus. He wouldn’t let her have a dog either—or even a cat. He was allergic. Hair. Dander. Fleas. And did she have any idea of what his parents had to spend on inhalers and injections and the rest of it when he was a kid? She didn’t. And at this point she didn’t care. Talk about impulse buying—the minute she walked through the door and saw them glittering there in their plexiglass cases she knew she had to have one. The shop was called Herps and it was located on the fringe of the shopping district, where the fast-food places were and the auto supply and a couple hole-in-the-wall Haitian and Cuban restaurants. She wouldn’t even have noticed it, let alone pushed through the door, if she hadn’t been so bored. Todd was having the car detailed and he couldn’t