Then, I remembered, I had hesitated. I'd been shoving him as hard as I could, but David didn't strike me as a boy in mortal terror. Was David, in fact, enjoying himself? Did he think this was playing? I knew the only way to eradicate that possibility was to punch him for real. Hard; in the gut. Where it mattered.

Who's going to love me?

Deep inside my lower-case d, something was turning over; testing the walls. The comprehension that Mr. Hope thought he was being kindly as he stood there pouting at me in the hallway. He thought he was being benevolent - that he had never been anything but. Here is what he had always understood our understanding to be: him kind, reaching down, singling me out, because I was so special to him. More special than anyone.

I was his Greta.

My blush drained off. Our Ds faced in. He held my eye, and I held his.

There was a fence, and someone was against it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

Ongoing grat.i.tude to Melanie Little and Sarah MacLachlan for their kindness, wisdom, and no-nonsense faith. And to the vital, crackling nerve centre of Canadian literature that is House of Anansi.

Thanks also to Mary Schendlinger and Stephen Osborne for helming Geist magazine in Vancouver, another such nerve centre on the west coast. Geist published two of these stories-"Take This and Eat It" and "The Natural Elements." The editing process was such that I probably should have been paying them, as opposed to the other way around.

Thanks also to Emily Schultz at Joyland.com, for bringing "Clear Skies" to the world wide web, the Walrus for publishing "Wireless" and John Metcalf for liking "Dogs in Clothes." And thanks to Ben Sures for acting as technical adviser on "Body Condom."

Thanks always to my agent, Christy Fletcher.

And thanks to Marina Endicott and Rob Appleford for hanging in there with me through the writing of "Mr. Hope."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

ROB APPLEFORD.

Lynn Coady is the author of the bestselling novel The Antagonist, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, as well as the novels Mean Boy, Saints of Big Harbour, and Strange Heaven and the short story collection Play the Monster Blind. She has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Stephen Leac.o.c.k Medal for Humour, and has four times made the Globe and Mail's annual list of Top 100 Books. Originally from Cape Breton, she now lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where she is a founding and senior editor of the award-winning magazine Eighteen Bridges.

ALSO BY LYNN COADY.

Strange Heaven.

Play the Monster Blind.

Saints of Big Harbour.

Mean Boy.

The Antagonist.