“A Love Story” by Samantha Hunt (fiction, ’99)
A story by Samantha Hunt (fiction, 99) appears in The New Yorker:
A LOVE STORY
by Samantha Hunt
“A coyote ate a three-year-old not far from here.”
“Yeah?”
“Huh.”
“He said, ‘Don’t leave those babies outside again,’ as if I already had.”
“Had you?”
“Come on.” An answer less precise than no.
“Why’s he monitoring coyote activity up here?”
“Because.”
“Because?”
“It’s irresistible.”
“Really?”
A wild dog with a tender baby in its jaws disappearing into the redwoods forever. My uncle’s so good at imagining things, he makes them real. “Yeah. It’s just what he does, a habit.” Or a compulsion.
“I don’t get it.”
But I do. Every real thing started life as an idea. I’ve imagined objects and moments into existence. I’ve made humans. I tip taxi-drivers ten, twenty dollars every time they don’t rape me.
*
The last time my husband and I had sex was eight months ago, and it doesn’t count because at the time my boobs were so huge from nursing that their power over him, over all men, really, was supreme. Now, instead of sex with my husband, I spend my nights imagining dangerous scenarios involving our children. It’s less fun.
[. . . to continue and to hear audio of the story, click here.]
