Smith, Curtis
Short Story
Music
Curtis Smith
(September, 2012)
The men with the chainsaws scrambled in the trees. The boy sat across the street, his bike by his side. The earth shook with each dropped limb. A few leaves clung to the branches, the limbs’ insides hollowed by rot. The men on the ground fed the limbs into the chipper. The chipper whirred, the drone of a thousand bees. A brown current spat from the chipper’s chute.
The tremors of the chipper and chainsaws remained with the boy as he rode off. Along the way, he passed his friends; they carried fishing poles and nets and boots. When the boy reached the old man’s house, he performed a rodeo rider’s dismount, the bike lying on its side, the front wheel still spinning. The curtains in the old man’s house were always drawn. The light hurt the old man’s eyes. The boy peered through the front door’s screen. The baseball game played on the radio. “Hello?” the boy called.
The boy stepped inside. Blinding, the darkness after the afternoon’s sunshine. He remained still and waited for his eyes to adjust. The first thing he noticed was the radio dial’s shine in the old man’s oxygen tubes. The old man’s palsied fingers reached forward, and the boy accepted the five-dollar bill. Before he pulled away, the old man seized his hand. The strength of his cold grip surprised the boy. “Thank you,” the old man said.
The kitchen smelled of medicine and rotting fruit. The boy filled a water glass. The heat built as the boy followed the old man up the steps. The old man grasped the handrail, the other hand clutching the oxygen tank. The boy waited as the old man caught his breath short of the final step.
They entered a small bedroom. In the room, a chair and an 8mm projector atop a tall stool. The old man took a framed picture from the wall and rested it on the floor. The wall was blank save the rectangular patch less faded than its surroundings. The old man collapsed into the chair. He shielded his eyes. “The window,” he gasped. The boy handed him the glass. The old man adjusted his oxygen tube and drank; his thick tongue licked the water from his lips.
The chainsaws’ drone faded when the boy closed the window. He pulled the shade and drew the curtain. He turned on the projector’s lamp. A lit square appeared on the wall. The vent above the bulb shone. Dust motes drifted through the vent’s lit shafts.
“Nurse,” the old man said.
Beneath the stool, a stack of circular tins, and on each, a strip of cloth tape. The boy shuffled through the tins—Schoolteacher, Waitress, Secretary—before finding Nurse. The boy attached the reel to the projector’s raised arm. With a spin, he unwound the film, a strip of illegible squares. He opened the motor’s casing. Squinting in the unshielded glare, the boy threaded the film over sprockets and rollers. A flick, and the motor caught. The film sputtered forward. The boy secured the tail to the take-up reel, shut the casing, and turned the motor off.
“Ready?” asked the boy.
The old man nodded. The boy turned the motor back on. The film loop stammered. The boy adjusted the focus. A black-and-white image appeared, a nurse in a small office, her skin and outfit shaded by the wall’s yellow. “Go,” the old man said.
The boy paused before closing the door. On the wall, a close-up of the nurse’s pretty face, a woman now old, perhaps dead. The old man pulled his chair forward until his shadow became part of the scene.
In the kitchen, the boy filled a water glass and took it to the porch. The late day sun knifed through the trees. In the distance, the chainsaws revved.
"Music" previously appeared in the September 2010 issue of "Hobart," at http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/september/smith.html
Curtis Smith's books can be found on his website:
About Writing . . .
A Conversation with Curtis Smith
Jerome W. McFadden
I met Curtis at the Write Stuff conference of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group last May. He was brought in as a substitute lecturer for one of the headliners who had to cancel at the last minute. As often happens with a “substitute,” he nearly stole the show with his boyish good looks, his self-deprecating humor, and his in-depth insights into the world of publishing.
His insights come from a solid writing career. So far he has published three novels, two short story collections, two flash fiction collections, and over 70 short stories and essays in prestigious literary journals and on-line magazines. His latest collection of short stories, Beasts and Men, is scheduled to hit the bookshelves in March, 2013, with this fourth novel, Lovepain, scheduled for for release in 2015. His quality matches his quantity; his short stories and essays have been included in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, and The Best American Spiritual Writing. He has also had frequent nominations for the Pushcart Prize that honors the best in short fiction.
Not bad for a full time writer, right? Wrong. Curtis holds down a demanding full-time job as a Special Education teacher at a high school in central Pennsylvania. His writing is done on the side–in mornings, evenings, and weekends. He balances all of this with a commitment to fitness (running, hiking, and biking) plus a strong marriage to his wife Michelle and raising his nine-year-old son Evan. And he occasionally pops around to talk at writing conferences and promote his books at signings and to reading groups.
He laughed when I made a crack about “does all that keep you busy?” but became serious when about his daily writing schedule and the discipline necessary to make it happen. He underlined that over the past 20 years his writing process has become streamlined. “I can get more done in an hour than I used to do in two or three hours. I treat writing kind of like exercise–I make the time to do it.” This includes getting up early to get in an hour or so in the morning, and them claim an hour or so at night.
One advantage of being a teacher, even in a demanding field such as Special Education, is getting the summer off. “I generate a lot of work then. That helps.”
A lot of writers focus on one genre such as thrillers, mysteries, or literary fiction, where they make their name and are immediately recognized. Curtis takes a different approach. “I enjoy writing different things. I always try to have a few things that I am working on, like a cycle of stories or essays.” He says he also always has a novel in drawer that he goes back and forth on when he has the urge. “This may sound scattered, but it’s really not,” he says. “This allows me to work on whatever project that is calling me.”
And the mystery stories and spiritual essays? “They’re just luck offshoots at my attempts at literary writing.”
Curtis says this strong urge to write came from growing up with close friends who were really into music and later hanging out with visual artists in college. “I am terribly untalented in both areas but I was fascinated and envious of their creativity. Then I started writing in my twenties and was fortunate to find an art form that suited my strengths.”
With all of this experience, I was curious if Curtis would advise a beginning writer to focus their short stories on the limited-universe-but-high-prestige of the printed literary journals or large-universe-and-quick-feedback of the on-line writing magazines? “There are pros and cons for each,'" he said. "It is great to have a story published in a nice journal but a website can provide a much wider potential audience.” Curtis follows that with advising new writers to go on-line to research which journals appeal to them. Most print journals now have some online content. “I think there are a number of really fine on-line journals, some that rival most print journals.”
In effect, with the exception of his more recent on-line stories, nearly all of Curtis’s work has appeared in the mainstream literary journals and small literary presses. I asked him if he made any effort to approach the major publishers. He replied that he is content to work with the small lit press. “They've provided me with a lot of artistic freedom that I might not have with a larger press.” He said he has worked with some agents but not for the past ten years or so. And those books again landed with a nice lit press. “With that said, I wouldn't mind having a book with a major publisher but I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.”
I had to ask if all the attention he has received from The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, and The Best American Spiritual Writing, and the nominations for the Pushcart Prize had any affect on his writing. He replied that he didn’t think so. “They were nice mentions and they provided great motivation, but I think I kept on writing the same material one way or the other.”
Curtis runs a very simple website at www.curtisjsmith.com that cover his books, reviews on his stories and novels, some excerpts and news where he may be speaking next. I asked him if he made a major effort to promote himself and his writing in the social media, which got a laugh from him. “I do Facebook but I only post news of my publications. But I do like to check out what other people are doing. I’ll follow their links and check out their work. And if I like it, I’ll try to drop the person a line. I also try to buy the books of folks whose work I’ve enjoyed. The element of connection and awareness is pretty cool.” We both shared a common reaction to one of the famous social sites. “I’m on LinkedIn, but I’ll be honest—I don’t know what I’m doing on there,” he said. I’m on it, too, and I don’t know why either.
We had a short conversation on the fact that no one in this era is going to make a living writing short stories or publishing novels at a small literary press. Curtis said the advances for his novel were about $1,000 each time. Money is obviously not the motivation for his prolific output. “I think anyone who truly wants to write for the art of it will do it whether or not they get paid.” Then he adds with a smile, “I’m not saying a paycheck isn't nice, but it’s not the root motivator.”
Curtis is the first to admit that writing this hard over the past 20 years required the full support of his wife and family. “It’s extremely important. I couldn't do it without them.”
Curtis’ books can be purchased on Amazon.com, March Street Press, Sunnyoutside Books, Casperian Books, and Press 53. For more information, visit his website at http://www.curtisjsmith.com.