The Mighty Red

by Louise Erdrich

‘I’ve got something to tell you that might help. I don’t believe in aliens anymore.’ ‘Really. What about radio waves causing diseases?’ ‘Actually, I said microwaves, low-voltage waves, and the studies show—’ ‘You read studies?’ Gary looked at her in hope. ‘Of course, yes, or I hear people say that studies reveal this or that.’ ‘Remember what Mr. Speck said, though. You should find the actual study that people reference and check it for accuracy.’

One of the best things about selling old books was going through them before they went onto the shelves. She tried not to buy marked-up or underlined books, but there were other ways books were personalized. People kept or left things in books—quotes, clippings, often about the author, letters that arrived while they were reading the book, bills they didn’t want to pay, foil gum wrappers, bookmarks from now-closed bookstores, funny drawings from their children, dry autumn leaves, grocery lists, complaints. She stored these scraps in a manila envelope marked Ephemera. From another time, another place, the bits had come into her hands.

I’ve been thinking how the world as we know, used to know, it really is ending. I thought of what the world was like even when I was a kid, how it was more . . . it was more full.’