A Horse Named Sorrow

Frontmatter

A Horse Named Sor­ row Ter­ race Books, a trade im­ print of the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press, takes its name from the Me­ mo­ rial Union Ter­ race, lo­ cated at the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin–Mad­ i­ son. Since its in­ cep­ tion in 1907, the Wis­ con­ sin Union has pro­ vided a venue for stu­ dents, fa­ culty, staff, and ­ alumni to de­ bate art, music, pol­ i­ tics, and the is­ sues of the day. It is a place where the­ a­ ter, music, drama, lit­ er­ a­ ture, dance, out­ door ac­ tiv­ i­ ties, and major speak­ ers are made avail­ able to the cam­ pus and the com­ mu­ nity. To learn more about the Union, visit www.union.wisc.edu. A Horse Named Sor­ row Tre­ bor ­ Healey Ter­ race Books A trade im­ print of the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press The au­ thor ­ wishes to thank the Mor­ ris ­ Graves Foun­ da­ tion for their gen­ er­ ous sup­ port in pro­ vid­ ing a writ­ ing res­ i­ dency where much of this story first ­ emerged. Ter­ race Books A trade im­ print of the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press 1930 Mon­ roe ­ Street, 3rd Floor Mad­ i­ son, Wis­ con­ sin 53711-2059 uw­ press.wisc.edu 3 Hen­ rietta ­ Street Lon­ don WC2E 8LU, En­ gland eu­ ros­ pan­ book­ store.com Copy­ right © 2012 The Board of Re­ gents of the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin ­ System All ­ rights re­ served. No part of this pub­ li­ ca­ tion may be re­ pro­ duced, ­ stored in a re­ trieval ­ system, or trans­ mit­ ted, in any for­ mat or by any means, dig­ i­ tal, elec­ tronic, me­ chan­ i­ cal, photo­ cop­ y­ ing, re­ cord­ ing, or oth­ er­ wise, or con­ veyed via the Inter­ net or a web­ site with­ out writ­ ten per­ mis­ sion of the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press, ex­ cept in the case of brief quo­ ta­ tions em­ bed­ ded in crit­ i­ cal ar­ ti­ cles and re­ views.­ Printed in the ­ United ­ States of Amer­ ica Li­ brary of Con­ gress ­ Cataloging-in-Publication Data­ Healey, Tre­ bor, 1962– A horse named Sor­ row / Tre­ bor ­ Healey. p.    cm. ISBN 978-0-299-28970-6 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-299-28973-7 (e-book) 1. Gay men—Fic­ tion. I. Title. PS3608.E24H67    2012 813´.6—dc23 2012009961 Parts of this book have been pub­ lished in ear­ lier ver­ sions. An in­ itial short draft first ap­ peared on­ line as “The Mercy Seat” in ­ Blithe House Quar­ terly 8, no. 2 (Spring 2004). Chap­ ters 28 and 30 first ap­ peared as “Boy Who Don’t Talk” in ­ Blithe House Quar­ terly 3, no. 3 (Sum­ mer 1999). Chap­ ter 3 first ap­ peared as “Jimmy in the Bath” in Quick­ ies 3, ed­ ited by James C. John­ stone (Van­ cou­ ver: Ar­ senal Pulp Press, 2003). Chap­ ter 43 first ap­ peared as “St. Andy” in Big Trips, ed­ ited by Ra­ phael Kad­ u­ shin (Mad­ i­ son: Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press, 2008). For Alex Nowik Dan­ iel Kopyc Eze­ quiel Yedro And the carny had a horse, all skin and bone … that he named Sor­ row Nick Cave, “The Carny Song” A Horse Named Sor­ row “Yel­ low­ dog, where does sor­ row go?” He held his heart. “Lives here, in each of us.” “So why was it run­ ning ­ around in that horse?” “Some­ times it does that. I’ve seen fear do that, and once I saw hate do that in a pack of stray dogs. When ­ there’s too much of some­ thing in one place, it runs ­ around.” He mo­ tioned with his hand. “Once I saw a whole buf­ falo herd named Sor­ row. It hap­ pens. Now, put your story in the fire.” ...