Story excerpt from Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories

Dead Man’s Float

She stood in the water beside him as he floated in the pool. A hand beneath his back, steadying him, the other on his genitals, coaxing his penis with gentle tugs to rise above the water. Skinny-dipping had been her idea. An old family tradition, she said. He wondered about the meaning of the remark, but not deeply, only as profoundly as nine hours of bingeing would allow: nine hours of gin and tonics, beer, margaritas of course, a schnapps or two. Water up to her breasts. Pretty breasts for a woman her age, and he was overwhelmed with gratitude that she would show them to him, would allow him the freedom to gaze upon, to touch, to put his lips to her breasts, to indeed open herself up utterly and allow him, another animal, to come into her. So overwhelmed that he began to weep, though the tears were indistinguishable from the pool water on his face. Reflections of light in the darkened glass face of the closed bar, slashed with red neon, slanting rays of light from beside the pool and the parking lot beyond, a celebration of luminescence, and he felt an ease flow through him, the melting of joy. He floated. His visceral extension arising from the water like a periscope. Gratitude abounding. Wonder, astonishment, at how the simple joy of being alive could fill him, melt, flow out into the water, then fill him up again. Gazing up at her shadowed face, backlit by the amazing rays of the firmament, he wept more openly.

       “Are you crying?” she said.

       “Maybe,” he said. “Don’t let go.” Fast in her sure grip, her steady hands, rolling over into a dead man’s float was utterly out of the question.

       “Hey!”

       It was not Cathy. Cathy had not altered her voice to a deeper, meaner tone and shouted hey. It came from behind and above her. From a woman standing at the verge of the pool. Cathy seemed to waver, to swoon. Then to puke. It started as a hiccup, one of Arlon’s hiccups, from which puke cascaded with each successive hiccup, up from her belly and throat, out of her mouth, onto his belly—hot vomit like maple syrup!—and into the water of the pool. Through it all, her hands never wavered, one beneath him, one clinging lovingly to his periscope.

       “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

       She would not let them be. All the joy in the world could melt.

       “I’m calling the cops!”

       Disengaging. Liquid slaps and splashes. He climbed from the pool. Cathy grasped the verge, steadying herself. He stood facing the strange, mean woman with blue pants and a knapsack, his erection going under. Glancing down, the mean woman recoiled. “What’s the matter, lady?” he slurred. “Never seen a belly button before?”

Praise for Jimtown Road:

In all my reading experience, I don't remember ever coming across a collection of linked stories that could also be classified as a page-turning mystery thriller, but this is exactly what the wickedly talented Dennis McFadden has achieved in Jimtown Road. It is sure to be considered one of the year's best.

—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Heavenly Table and The Devil All the Time

With the artfully linked story collection, Jimtown Road, Dennis McFadden lured me to a sun-gold hilltop, and then pulled me into the thick, dark woods. He led me—breathless, heart thumping—over winding country roads and, driving too fast into the night without headlights, up and down the streets of Hartsgrove, his fictional—yet so real—small, Pennsylvania town. I followed him into dim taverns and dusty antiques shops and the lonely homes of his bruised and (sometimes) resilient characters. These stories, these characters, this town inhabit me like an ache, like an exquisite yearning. There is so much need in these pages. Need for security, revenge, love, apology, intimacy, belonging, escape, power, peace. These needs are like the small town neighbors of Hartsgrove: they are always there, always in one another’s business, always weighing on the choices made and their consequences. As I moved with McFadden from one story to the next, the ghosts of each tale (those girls, those poor little girls) followed me, haunted me. They haunt me still.

—Patricia Ann McNair, author of The Temple of Air

Stepping onto Jimtown Road begins a satisfying, if unsettling, journey across generations in the fictional town of Hartsgrove, Pennsylvania. In exquisite prose, Dennis McFadden fills the pages of these skillfully crafted linked stories with love, hope, death and danger. They offer an unblinking look, illuminated with burning intensity by the ever-present moon, at the darkest parts of the human heart. Peopled by very real and flawed characters who feel like anyone’s own neighbors and friends, I found myself at the end of this book aching to return as soon as possible. I strongly urge everyone to visit McFadden’s Hartsgrove. You will not leave disappointed.

—Ray Morrison, author of In a World of Small Truths

These interestingly linked stories are fresh, gritty, surprising, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. We’ve published linked story collections in the past, but Dennis’ approach is unique. When I finished one story, I found myself looking forward to the next one, wondering who I was about to meet and how the story would tie in with the others. And the last story brought the entire collection full-circle, right back to the beginning with a very strange twist.

—Kevin Morgan Watson, Press 53 Publisher & Editor in Chief, and final judge for the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction

About the Author

Dennis McFadden grew up in Brookville, a small town in western Pennsylvania very much like the fictional Hartsgrove of Jimtown Road. He’s a graduate of Allegheny College and is a project manager for the state of New York. He lives and writes in an old farmhouse called Mountjoy on Bliss Road, just up Peaceable Street from Harmony Corners in upstate New York. His stories have appeared in dozens of publications, including The Missouri Review, New England Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Sewanee Review, Fiction, Crazyhorse, PRISM international, The South Carolina Review, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and The Best American Mystery Stories. His first collection, Hart’s Grove, was published by Colgate University Press in 2010.