New Fiction from NER 39.1.
Maybe you know this one already.
I was a double adulterer. Meaning he was married, I was married. We were—all four of us—married. I like marriage.
I do. I trust it. Not the old, woman-as-chattel-type marriage nor the swinging polyamory of artists and gurus, but modern, agile, mutual-respect-and-comfort-type marriage. I am good at it. When I am at it. It’s still the best thing going. The ocean swells are temperate and smooth enough to ride to shore. A seaward glance can tell you all (or most) of what the atmosphere is planning. In the so-called wedded state I am as devoted as the next devoted person. Don’t look at me like that.
Merrie Snell’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI and Cimarron Review. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Iowa and, during a lengthy writing hiatus, completed a PhD in music from Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Snell’s sound and video installations have exhibited in the UK and Sweden and she is writing a book on music and embodiment. She lives in England with her husband, dog, and their embarrassment of degrees, and is delighted to return to the pages of New England Review after two decades in the wilderness.