Kee: переводы

→‘I’ve never had it cleaned.’

→‘When’s the last time you had this cleaned?’

→Smoking beside the Ear one winter night, she wiggled deeper under the sheets and admitted the only thing she’s never fallen from, or into, was love. ‘If that’s how you do it, I would have done it,’ she said. Then she leaned over to butt out her cigarette and fell out of the bed.

→The Amphibian introduced Tom to all his friends. All the Amphibian’s friends were superheroes. The Amphibian’s friends became Tom’s friends. Now all of Tom’s friends are superheroes. But because they all have a superpower, and everyone they know has a superpower, having a superpower is nothing special to them. What’s special to them is not having a superpower. They can’t imagine how anyone could get through life without having a superpower. It seems unbelievable to them.

→ABOUT THE AUTHOR

→And, of course, Marlo Miazga (a superhero name if ever there was one).

→Allen Sherwood, Andy Pedersen, Tom Barkhouse, Stephanie Domet, Matt Tunnacliffe, Chris Boyce and everybody at DNTO, Rob McLaughlin and everybody at CBC Radio 3, Karrie North, Karen and Barry Miazga, Ian McInnis, Jason McBride, Sheila Heti, Nora Young and Marc Forrest for support over the long, long, long haul.

→Zachariah Pickard, Suzanne Matczuk and especially Alana Wilcox whose brilliant ideas and insights into the editing of this book were so accurate and knowing the reader thinks it’s all me.

→Shirley Kaufman, Rolly Kaufman and Liz Kaufman for decades of support and encouragement. We are a family so nuclear we glow.

→The author wishes to thank:

→ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

→And she sees him.

→He leans his forehead against hers. Their foreheads touch. Without making a sound, Tom mouths the words again, ‘What would make this perfect?’

→‘Perf, what would make this moment perfect?’

→The Perfectionist stops. She turns her head, slightly, in his direction. Fifty feet. Tom whispers again, even softer, even quieter.

→‘What would make this perfect?’ he whispers.

→‘Perf,’ Tom says. He watches her bend down. She slips her shoes back on. He leans down with her. The plane is four hundred feet from the ground. Tom leans very close to her ear. Three hundred feet. The passengers grab armrests. They take deep breaths. The nose of the plane tilts up. Tom licks his lips. The wheels are a hundred feet from the ground. Tom whispers into her ear.

→She can do this. As soon as the wheels touch Vancouver she’ll move on. She’ll make it perfect. She’ll make Vancouver perfect. She has the power to do this.

→She swears she can smell Tom. Her eyes mist.

→The runway is in sight. The plane banks and becomes parallel with the runway. The Perfectionist looks to the right of the asphalt and sees, very tiny, the plane’s shadow. Nothing more than a blob. The plane continues descending. The shadow gains more definition. It starts to grow wings. Now she can see the nose of the plane, the tail.