A LYS S A W A R R E N

Not the Only Sky.indd 3 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 First published 2017
by Black & White Publishing Ltd
29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JL

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 17 18 19 20

ISBN: 978 1 78530 090 5

Copyright Alyssa Warren 2017

The right of Alyssa Warren to be identified as the

author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without permission in writing from the publisher.

This novel is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents

portrayed in it are of the authors imagination.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is
entirely coincidental.

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

Typeset by Iolaire, Newtonmore

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Not the Only Sky.indd 4 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 For my boys

Not the Only Sky.indd 5 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 Part I

1988
A photograph is a secret about a secret.
- Diane Arbus

Not the Only Sky.indd 1 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 MAY

Not the Only Sky.indd 3 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 They could almost be out to sea. Theres the world
simplified to two elements, a rectangle of sky over a rectangle
of earth. Theres the wind lifting pigtails parallel to the horizon,
pressing thick wool coats into the shapes of bones. If it werent
for the prairie grass in the foreground, the four-year-old twins in
the sepia photograph could be walking on water. The title below
the photograph reads My Family by Clea Marie Baumhauer. It
felt odd writing Clea when everyone calls her Tiny Mite, but
Miss Wright doesnt allow nicknames.
The twins in the photograph dont go by their real names either.
Though christened Luvella and Burnella no ones ever called them
anything but Luvie and Bee. Other words trapped in the photo-
graph: German words disintegrating in the twins cheeks like bits
of apple, including, Tiny Mite imagines, curse words like kacken
and sheize because the twins parents are Vulgar Germans. (Tiny
Mite doesnt understand why Catherine the Great took Vulgar
Germans with her to Russia instead of well-behaved ones, but
whenever she asks Bee or Luvie, they laugh.)
Tiny Mite knows a photograph doesnt show everything thats
in it. It may look like a rectangle of cardboard, but is more like

not the only sky 5

Not the Only Sky.indd 5 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 a window. Standing at her attic bedroom window, she can see
nothing but cornfields, but when she opens it and leans outside,
sees a barn to the left, and to the right, the wrecked airplane. In
the same way, she can stick her head into photographs.
Inside this particular one, she bends so far forward that
through the legs of the traveling photographer she can see the
one-room tarpaper shack the twins share with their parents and
four brotherscow, horse and buffalo dung piled onto its sod
roof for insulation. Alongside the door stands the rusted oil
barrel filled with the buffalo chips they burn when they cant find
wood. Beyond, in a lilting, wooden corral, the wild horses her
brothers capture, break and sell whinny and buck. Twenty steps
further is the privy (in her report, Tiny Mite has clarified: privy,
n: a wooden hut with a hole in the ground where you go to the
bathroom and are lucky if you get to wipe with a corn cob much
less a newspaper. Also known as an outhouse, thunder box,
Johnny, crapper, stinker, comfort station, washroom, shithouse
and latrine. She hopes shit wont count as a swear word since
she put it in a proper dictionary entry.
Once shes inside a photo, Tiny Mite zooms in on things. In
this one, she knows from the rough texture of the twins dresses
and thick-edged petticoats that theyre made from bleached flour
sacks. Deep creases in their leggings reveal too small black boots
laced too tight.
Some photographs are crystal balls, this one in particular, and
if Tiny Mite squints, she can see the twins future. Behind the
tarpaper shack, on the empty prairie, a farmhouse will rise, white
as a babys first tooth. Two stories, four front windows and a
wraparound porch. A shelterbelt of sapling ash, pine, elm, oak
and box elder will grow around it. A well will be dug, its yellow
water laced with iron and silt. A barn will appear, large enough
for ten horses, a hay wagon and threshing machine, and soon

6 alyssa warren

Not the Only Sky.indd 6 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 after, a milk house, smokehouse, blacksmithing hut, silo and
corncrib. A pump connected to the creek beyond the right edge
of the photograph will irrigate fields of corn and alfalfa.
Grasshoppers will come and devour everything.
Two pages of her report are covered with drawings of loco-
motives derailing on grasshopper grease and locusts chewing the
puffy sleeves off her great-grandmothers black taffeta dresses. A
brontosaurus-sized grasshopper, its spine crenelated with nails
and drill bits, bites off the head of a farmer wielding a pitchfork.
A thought bubble above the oversized reptile says, Brains! My
favorite!
Thought bubbles are Tiny Mites new big thing. Shed like to
draw some over the twin girls heads, but other than kacken and
sheize she doesnt speak German, and she wasnt supposed to
take the picture out of the family album, much less paste it onto
her report.
Sperm cant talk, so thought bubbles were handy in the section
about her parents. Shes written, I hope its a girl! over her
drawing of a tadpole riding a motorcycle toward a Barbie cut
from an advertisement and embellished with googly eyes. Tiny
Mite feels uneasy about this part of the storylast week Miss
Wright made her miss recess to reiterate the difference between
storytelling and lying, and though she rewrote half a dozen essays
on the subject, still feels confused, because even though shes never
met her father, she knows he drives a motorcycle named Harley
and has her very same straight black hair. She also knows his
nicknames are Blankety Blank and the Goddamned Idiot,
but has withheld this information on account of Miss Wrights
high regard for proper names.
If Tiny Mite rubs the back of the photograph, she can see
further into the twins future to the seven plagues: after grass-
hoppers, drought, hail, tornadoes, floods, anthrax, bankruptcy.

not the only sky 7

Not the Only Sky.indd 7 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 Theres the bank manager circling the farmhouse in a dusty
bowler muttering about his hands being tied, but pointing to
a fixable wheel here, an outdated but sellable kettle there. He
motions toward the coyote pup the twins washed out of a den
for a pet and tells the auctioneer to try and get something for it.
The day after the bank managers visit, the twins, their brothers
and parents hitch a ride from the lost farm to the nearest town, Big
Bend, South Dakota, with a neighbor hoping to sell a grandfather
clock. For fifteen miles, the twins lie alongside the clock in the
flatbed of the truck, their ears against its smooth wooden sides.
The neighbor fetches a tenth of what the clock is worth, but gives
their father some coins when he sees the boarding house theyre
moving into on the muddy side of the river bend. Though their
mother finds mouse droppings in the holes in the mattresses, the
bathroom down the hall has plumbing. Accustomed to breaking
a layer of ice off the water bucket winter mornings, the twins
are so enthralled with separate hot and cold faucets they make a
game of seeing who can hold her finger under the scalding water
the longest. On the third day, however, the landlady catches them
and twists their earlobes until they burn. And speak English!
she snaps, letting them go.
On the sixth day, the twins father breaks his back under a
runaway piano working for a moving company. Prostrate on a
canvas stretcher, he shakes his fist at the sky. Names Adelbert,
not Job!
On the seventh day (though her story is one hundred percent
true, Tiny Mite has used biblical wording to make her report
truer and avoid missing recess), four men in denim overalls carry
Adelbert to a tent revival where the collection is taken with
milk pails. Though Adelbert doesnt rise like the cripple lowered
through a roof to Jesus, the Lord touches Adelberts heart, and
his earthly reward for being born again is to meet a man who

8 alyssa warren

Not the Only Sky.indd 8 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 teaches him to fix tools, clocks, watches, and eventually, radios
and small appliances.
If Tiny Mite rubs the back of the photograph, holds her breath
and walks in a circle, she can see the thirteen-year-old twins
pacing through a foggy dusk, paid to wear sandwich boards that
read: Dance At The Ark Tonight. At sunrise theyll jump from
the rivers pink granite bank and dive for bottles thrown over the
dancehalls balcony the night before. Eight bottles in each bony
set of arms, theyll run to Camelback Bridge, and in the shade of
its rusty girders, sell them to a bootlegger named Clete Blubbers.
One day hell be short of change and give them a brand new deck
of cards.
The day after that Adelbert will find the cards, call them the
devils bible and throw them into the fire. Good thing he doesnt
know about the Ark or the bottlesthe twins mother covers
for them because God let the bank take their farm and now she
cleans too many houses, boils too many sheets and darns too
many clothes to concern herself with the devil.
If Tiny Mite rubs the back of the photograph, spells ABRA-
CADABRA backward and hops on one foot, she can see the
nineteen-year-old twins at the county fair. Theres Luvie behind a
kissing booth, bra stuffed with cotton wadding, hugging a coffee
can full of quarters. She calls to a ginger boy clutching the teddy
bear he just won in the ring toss. And theres Bee among the
passersby, who, while accepting a donation to the missionary
fund, notices a blond boy in a tweed cap doing card tricks at the
center of a giggling circle of girls.
When Luvie hooks the ginger boys eyes, he drops the bear.
When the blond boy notices Bee watching, he drops his cards.
The ginger boy blushes as he picks up the hay-covered bear.
The blond boy grins as he gathers the cards into their holder.
Both boys dig in their pockets for a quarter.

not the only sky 9

Not the Only Sky.indd 9 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 And this is Tiny Mites favorite part of the storythe four-
year-old twins in the photograph dont know theyre going to fall
in love with these boys and dance with them at the Ark.
The ginger boy sets his prize on the edge of Luvies kissing
booth. You in need of a cuddly bear?
The blond boy points at the missionary fund can in Bees
hands. You got enough in there to buy us some burgers?
Heres another thing Tiny Mite knows: both boys will whoop
Hitlers ass. One will become a pilot and earn a Purple Heart in
the Battle of the Bulge. The other will serve as a gunner on Omaha
Beach. Before they enlist, both boys will marry their sweethearts
under a blooming crab apple tree. The ginger boy will give Luvie
a handwritten book of poetry. The blond boy will give Bee the
deed to her familys lost farm.
Bee, the older twin by three minutes, will become Tiny Mites
grandmother and spank her once for taking this very picture out
of the family album, twice for claiming sperm ride motorcycles
and three times for saying she got the information from the Book
of Revelation.
Luvie, the younger twin, will become Tiny Mites great aunt
and they will all live together in the farmhouse. While passing the
butter to her sister, shell say the Goddamned Idiot is so lazy, his
sperm may have needed the extra boost of a Harley to get Velvet
pregnant.
Please, Bee will squeeze her temples. I dont have the
wherewithal to think about Blankety Blank right now.
Fine. Luvie will smash her cigarette. I didnt say a goddamn
thing.
Goddamn. Its Tiny Mites favorite word. Though Blankety
Blank has the pleasing rhythm of a one-legged war hero hopping
to the fridge for a beer, goddamn sounds like a two-chop
ninja move. The one time Tiny Mite uttered it Bee washed her

10 alyssa warren

Not the Only Sky.indd 10 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 mouth out with soap seven times and made her apologize to God
seventy-seven times because seven is His favorite number. Luvie,
however, gets to say, goddamn whenever she wants, and
smoke, too. Tiny Mites not sure if thats because Luvie brings
home the bacon selling make-up and being secretary to Randall
P. Henniker, Jr., Attorney at Law, or because forty-three years
later, Bee still feels guilty her G.I. came home and Luvies didnt.

not the only sky 11

Not the Only Sky.indd 11 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 Velvet lifts the heavy black handset. Can she make a
collect call from a pay phone? How does she dial? What if no
one answers? She hadnt imagined that possibility. This late, the
farmhouse empty. Through the pay phones shattered glass door,
she can see the driver of the green car in the motels reception
area accepting a key from the bouffant-haired clerk.
No dial tone. Velvet rattles the receivers cold metal tongue.
Presses 0. Operator?
The driver crosses the parking lot toward the phone booth,
throwing and catching the key, the neon sign sprinkling his hands
and face with red freckles. Suspicious of the spring in his step,
she resolves to call home and sit up all night in the reception area
with the clerk. Help out while she waits. Dust brochures. Water
plants. Greet customers. One night, at most another day. Luvie
will come. Or Jiggs. It makes her smile, realizing how happy
shed actually be to see him.
Velvet presses the 0 harder. Operator?
Operator. How may I direct your call?
Velvets relief is overtaken by shame. What will she say to
Bee? How will she explain herself? Has she waited too long to

12 alyssa warren

Not the Only Sky.indd 12 15/12/2016 10:56:31

 call? What if Tiny Mite isnt there? What will she do if she isnt?
But she must be, which will mean shes told her story first. Tiny
Mites stories are always big and this one has had an entire day
to grow unchecked. What if Luvie and Jiggs refuse to help? What
if Bee wont speak to her?
Yes, operator. I need to Again that cry in her head: Mimi!
Wait!
What has she done? Velvet pictures chocolate-smeared lips
and marker-stained hands, the farmhouse empty, everyone at
the police station or out looking. That cashier from the Qwik
Stop shaking his head, wringing his hands, giving his statement.
A social worker at the farm, pursing lips, taking notes, making
threats. Everyone in Big Bend knowing, talking, judging. For
once in her life Tiny Mite doesnt have to exaggerate. What if
children arent resilient? What if they dont forgive? What if what
shes doneregardless of whether she carries on, or worse, turns
back empty-handedis irreversible?
Operator. How may I direct your call?
Velvet looks at her warped, red-hued reflection in the steel
telephone. What she has done.
Its bigger than six hundred miles and ten thousand failed
interviews.
Bigger than Blankety Blank.
Bigger than Peter.

not the only sky 13

Not the Only Sky.indd 13 15/12/2016 10:56:31