2021 riverrun Final PDF

A spindled man called out to him. The man’s eyes were sunken, skin pale,
trembling hands. A simple offer was made. “A new pen does wonders sir.”
“It gives good luck.”
“It will certainly help.”
“Yes, I’m sure sir.”
“Yes, it’s free.”
“Please.”
The pen was simple, ceramic, intricate paint, a fountain tip, A regal finger
on it’s sharp point. “It is a nice pen,” Decker had thought. “Maybe it will help,” he
had thought.
Decker couldn’t watch as the man he had once been made the mistake, the
only mistake, the best mistake, the cursed blessing. The day had been simple, quiet,
easy, his last. He remembered reaching for the pen. The brass-colored surface
shone. His skin shivered. His fingers touched the pen. His muscles rippled. His hand
grasped. His bones shook. He took the pen.
Decker hardly remembered the following months. He was in his world,
words poured onto the page again and again. Revision, draft, revision, draft. The
ideas never stopped; the words never stopped. At the end of it all he was Adam King,
author and editor of The Sparrowman.
Then he wasn’t. Like a lightbulb bursting, it was over. The book was out. He
could talk for an hour about it. Give half-satisfying answers about the text already
out of his head. Eventually the talks stopped. Fans converged and fought over interpretations
and meanings, and epiphanies and some such without him. They didn’t
need him; he could sit in his fancy new house with his new car and private garden
that had recently been infested with bees and leave them alone. They had The Sparrowman.
Emily saw her father at his desk. His hands racing over the typewriter. He
stopped to quickly jot something down in a notebook. She remembered that scene.
She was down the hall. She wanted him to come to dinner. She had stopped calling
after her fifth attempt.
She remembered the front curb of her elementary school. She would play
with Amy and the other kids waiting for their parents, until they left, until she and
Amy were alone, until her teacher, Ms. Kimbly, would tell them to come back inside
and do their homework. When they were done with their homework they would
draw. They made dragons and fairies. They watched movies. They played on the
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