Thank you to the book-world friends I’ve made during this time, especially mónica teresa ortiz, Raquel Gutiérrez, J. David Gonzalez, Dobby Gibson, Daley Farr, Corey Miller, Bing Li, Madeline ffitch, Uriel Perez, and Mark Haber.

  Thanks to Little Max, who was present during the drafting of every one of these stories, and may he rest in peace. I miss you every day, my friend.

  I listened to Courtney Barnett’s cover of “Shivers” on repeat during the writing of “You Got It, Take It Away,” so thank you, Courtney Barnett, for taking me there. Nat King Cole’s “El Bodeguero” straight-up inspired “Pheasants,” and I played it very loud while writing it, so thank you for everything, Nat King Cole, especially for those Spanish records.

  Thanks to the labels Unseen Worlds, Mississippi Records, and Light in the Attic for the necessary jams. Thanks to my local record stores: Bluebonnet Records, Breakaway Records, and End of an Ear.

  Thanks to my local and not-so-local indie bookstores: BookPeople, Book Woman, Brazos Bookstore, Pilsen Community Books, Point Reyes Books, Skylight Books, City Lights Bookstore, Deep Vellum Books, the Center for Fiction, Third Place Books, Riffraff Bookstore, and, of course, Becky Garcia, Joe, and the crew at Malvern Books.

  Special thanks to all the booksellers out there, too.

  As if all this was not enough, a mountain range of thanks is reserved for my visionary editor, Jackson Howard, and the entire team behind the scenes at MCD × FSG Originals, including, but not limited, to: Chloe Texier-Rose, Na Kim, June Park, Mitzi Angel, and Sean McDonald. I’d also like to thank Caitlin Van Dusen, Emily Bell, Danny Vazquez, and Naomi Huffman.

  Lastly, thanks to Adira and Taisia K. I’d be nothing without these two. And that’s for damn sure.

  ALSO BY FERNANDO A. FLORES

  Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas

  Tears of the Trufflepig

  A Note About the Author

  Fernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in South Texas. He is the author of the collection Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas and the novel Tears of the Trufflepig, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and named a Best Book of 2019 by Tor.com. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal, frieze, Grand Journal, Porter House Review, and other publications. He lives in Austin. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT NOTICE

  DEDICATION

  EPIGRAPHS

  QUESO

  THE SCIENCE FAIR PROTEST

  NOCTURNE FROM A WORLD CONCAVE

  THE 29TH OF APRIL

  ZAPATA FOOTS THE BILL

  NOSTRADAMUS BABY

  POSSUMS

  A PORTRAIT OF SIMÓN BOLÍVAR BUCKNER

  ROPA USADA

  PANCHOFIRE & MARINA

  EL RITMO DE LA NOCHE

  YOU GOT IT, TAKE IT AWAY

  PHEASANTS

  THE OSWALD VARIATIONS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ALSO BY FERNANDO A. FLORES

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  MCD × FSG Originals

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  120 Broadway, New York 10271

  Copyright © 2022 by Fernando A. Flores

  All rights reserved

  First edition, 2022

  These stories previously appeared, in slightly different form, in the following publications: Hingston & Olsen’s 2019 Short Story Advent Calendar (“The Science Fair Protest”), Construction (“Nocturne from a World Concave”), New Border Voices: An Anthology (“The 29th of April”), Porter House Review (“Zapata Foots the Bill”), Ploughshares (“Nostradamus Baby”), the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal (“Possums”), Conflict of Interest (“Panchofire & Marina”), frieze (“El Ritmo de la Noche”), Grand Journal (“Pheasants”), and Wander (“The Oswald Variations”).

  Title-page art and hand-lettering by Na Kim.

  Ebook ISBN: 978-0-374-60414-1

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  www.fsgoriginals.com • www.fsgbooks.com

  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @fsgoriginals

 

 

  Fernando A. Flores, Valleyesque

 

 

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