The Australian - Hardcover

"This city is a simulacrum," says Luc, ignoring the Australian's hand and tossing his skinned apple into a nearby trash bin. "It is an artificial representation of an idea, a nightmare that we pretend is a memory -- that we tell ourselves is a reality. A copy of a copy of a thing that never existed. Tell me something." He finally looks at the Australian. "Do you think this city should be here? Would you cry if it burned to the ground?"
The Australian isn't sure what is expected of him, but he nods vigorously.
"Of course you would," Luc continues. "You would cry, you would weep like a child whose ice cream fell into the sand on a hot summer day at the beach. That does not surprise me, not at all. Do you know why you would cry?"
"Because it would be a huge tragedy?" He senses that he is in over his head. But although Luc terrifies him, he is eager for him to proceed.
"No," Luc says, staring off into the distance, where a swatch of city skyline rises up beyond the trees. "You would cry because you believe in this city -- the buildings, the subways, this fence, that jungle gym. When you see a water fountain, you think, "That is something I must walk around." When you see a parking meter, you think, "That is something I need to avoid." Do you know what that makes you?"
"No," says the Australian, suddenly very self-conscious about his spandex shorts and considering the possibility that he is in the presence of genius.
"It makes you part of the simulacrum," says Luc. "That is what I'm here to fix."

Emma Smith-Stevens' writing has appeared in BOMB Magazine, Subtropics, Conjunctions, Day One, Wigleaf, Joyland, the anthology Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture (Eds. Roxane Gay and Ashley C. Ford), and many other places. Her second book, a story collection entitled Greyhounds, will be published in early 2018. She holds an MFA from the University of Florida and teaches with the Bard Prison Initiative. She lives in New York with her husband and their two dogs.