A visit to the october country — 2019

On the last day of September, he was seated at his desk, lost in thought.

The summer had hung on, was still lingering around the edges of the room and down certain streets with the right combination of tall glass buildings. This was an increasingly ordinary turn of events, climatologically and meteorologically speaking -- summers had been lasting longer for most of his life -- but this summer was different. Not only was the heat still cooking the planet, but the summer had a particular stickiness that was slow in washing away.

It had been a summer of upheaval, at home and abroad, in his life and in the lives of those around him, and he was looking forward to some measure of stillness and peace. This would still be somewhat long in the coming, however, as he had to first tie the nuptial knot. He still remembered the first time he'd invited his oh-so-soon-to-be wife on this trip with him; was floored to imagine inviting nearly a hundred others to spend even a small amount of time on the trip with the both of them; was giddy and scared and nervous and thrilled to be furthering anchoring himself -- anchoring the both of them -- to this time and this space.

The future had of late been something he was wary of, feeling much like Hamlet having lost his mirth. But as that summer had drawn down, for the first time in several years, he felt some small spark of hope that great things were coming. Not only that: he had the sense that he might in fact live up to them, that these great things might carry him along with them.

He stood up from his desk and turned to consider the library around him. This moment felt as he had imagined it would, all those years ago as a child dreaming of the life he might one day lead. It had not gone according to plan, but he'd arrived here all the same, and so he set about to filling his bags with that pleasant realization in mind.

As ever, he had far more than he needed. But in his sleep, he didn’t mind the weight. His partner, their leaf-red dog, and all of their friends and family and guests would meet him there -- but he wanted, as ever, to travel this leg of the journey alone. So, as he drifted off and as he walked up to the ticket window, he saw the old familiar face of the conductor and smiled. The conductor's skeletal grin was mirrored back at him as they handed him his ticket for that singular train, the one slowly departing now for the October Country…

The 2019 October Country Reading List

  • Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba, translated by Lisa Dillman

  • Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron

  • We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

  • American Predator by Maureen Callahan

  • Found Audio by N.J. Campbell

  • The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  • My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

  • The Wicked and the Divine, Vol. 9: Okay by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Clayton Cowles, and Matt Wilson

  • The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf, translated by Susan Bernofsky

  • Scratch by Steve Himmer

  • In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt

  • Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

  • The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson

  • The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

  • The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

  • Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson

  • Needful Things by Stephen King

  • Tinfoil Butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton

  • Ghost Box III edited by Patton Oswalt

  • Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

  • The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

  • The Fool and Other Moral Tales by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson

  • The Reaping by Bernard Taylor

  • Amatka by Karin Tidbeck

  • Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon