Tama Janowitz - They Is Us

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

The Friday Project

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © Tama Janowitz 2008

Tama Janowitz asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781906321307

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007380954

Version: 2016-10-05

To Fay Weldon and Nick Fox

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Walt Kelly, poster caption for World Earth Day, 1973

The Small Loaf of an Artist in Society

Two chihuahuas have tiny pillowcases

pulled over their heads with holes

cut out for eyes and noses.

Are they members of the Ku Klux Klan?

We do not know. Only, they must

itchy in this warm dampness,

this summer sprinkled with peppery

flies over the ash can of our lives.

What has blighted the stout cart-

puller, the homebody, the watch cur,

Beware of the Dog, a sign

leading to reticence in strangers.

All is changed, deranged and gone,

even slouches have a political

roll to fill. This is not a country

for old schnauzers or dull doubters

who muddle and fiddle and refuse

to remember the name of the street

they live on simply because they’ve

changed address once too often

and their furniture grows

molds and fungi in a warehouse

in Walla-Walla Washington. Changes!

Get used to them! Some young rabble

rouser keeps yelling in the parking

lot on Twenty-Third street, where

the organ grinder used to play

O sole Mio just beneath the windows

of our mansion and his monkey tipped

his hat in mock thanks for the penny

that we threw him, although he cavorted

on hollyhocks and crushed petunias in

our Moorish garden, but it’s too late

for giving an artist advice, who

having taken on the guise (gorge

and hackles) of a purebred dalmatian,

is polymorphous perverse now, indeed

always has been.

Phyllis Janowitz

Cover

Title Page THEY IS US A cautionary horror story Tama Janowitz

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Epigraph 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7B 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Acknowledgements Other Books By About the Publisher This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. The Friday Project An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk Copyright © Tama Janowitz 2008 Tama Janowitz asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 9781906321307 Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007380954 Version: 2016-10-05

Dedication Dedication Dedication Epigraph 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7B 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Acknowledgements Other Books By About the Publisher To Fay Weldon and Nick Fox “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Walt Kelly, poster caption for World Earth Day, 1973

Epigraph

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Other Books By

About the Publisher

Years pass. There are still thimbles and Unitarians. The world is the same as it has always been, maybe a little worse. It’s a beautiful summer day, kind of, although violent electrical storms are predicted for later – if not that day, then sometime. And the news, too, is much the same: 40 percent of people can’t sleep; a type of bustard believed to be extinct has been found; war continues.

Slawa is still out there, painting the driveway with black glop. Why did he have to wear his white high-heels? The fool, he’s going to ruin them. Now he’s using his knife to open a second gallon of the stuff. Murielle could easily run him over, but he moves out of the way. She is taking Julie to look for a summer job.

Julie wants to help at the old age home her mother manages, but Murielle says no. Her mother prefers her older sister, Tahnee. Tahnee is fourteen. Tahnee is too lazy to work. Murielle doesn’t seem to mind this, even though she is determined that Julie, who is only thirteen, should do something. First she tells Julie to look up the job listings, but there’s nothing Julie is qualified for except maybe at the Blue Booby Club as a cocktail waitress or stripper if she lies about her age.

Murielle drives Julie and tells her to go in by herself. Julie is scared. It is dark after the bright outside, the gloom of mid-afternoon in a strip club that reeks of beer with a fainter odor of bleach. At first the manager seems interested. “Show me your tits,” he says, but Julie doesn’t move. “How old are you, hon, anyway?”