Encounters With Unexpected Animals – Bret Anthony Johnston (1)

“Daddy,” she said, groggy, “did you bring me a Blizzard?” Before he could answer, her eyes lidded and she was back asleep. He lifted her from the bed and backed out of the room and carried her to the couch. The cat was cleaning itself on the wicker table. Dixon shooed it away. He snatched the flag from the wall and draped it over Katie.

She snuggled into it, tucking the fabric under her chin. He kissed her cheek and whispered, “I’ll be right back, Kaybird.” He hadn’t called her that in years, had entirely forgotten about the nickname, and yet, now, there it was. He took up the bucket of glue. The brothers hadn’t moved.

The room was loud with the struggling air conditioner. He left the lights off, locked the door behind him, and beat the brothers until he lost feeling in his hands. Before he left, they were whimpering and pleading, huddled in different corners of the room, too disoriented to find their way out.

Dixon flipped on the light. The brothers pressed their bloody faces to the walls. Whether out of fear or a reaction to the sudden brightness, Dixon didn’t know. Nor did he know if they’d remember or understand what had happened once they sobered up. To make sure, he emptied a bucket of cobbler’s glue over each of their heads. • • • He woke in the taxidermist’s parking lot with gravel notching into his cheek. He coughed pieces of it out of his mouth like broken teeth and the coughing sent electric pain down his spine.

He tried raising himself but couldn’t. He was too heavy or weak or he’d forgotten how. His ears rang. He tasted copper and minerals and his own mealy blood. He tasted hamburger fried with onions and peppers.

Copyright © 2026 by Bret Anthony Johnston Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission.

You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. random house and the house colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Hardback isbn 9780399590153 Ebook isbn 9780399590160 The stories in this work were originally published as follows: “Paradeability” (American Short Fiction), “Soldier of Fortune” (Glimmer Train Stories), “Encounters with Unexpected Animals” (Esquire), “Caiman” (AGNI), “The Beginning of Wisdom” previously titled “Republican” (Ploughshares), Miss McElroy (Ecotone), “Young Life” (The Southampton Review), “Dixon” (Virginia Quarterly Review), “Playing the Ghost” (Texas Monthly), “Palomino” (The Southern Review), “Time of the Preacher” (Virginia Quarterly Review), “Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses” (American Short Fiction) book team: Production editor: Ted Allen • Managing editor: Rebecca Berlant • Production manager: Richard Elman • Copy editor: Madeline Hopkins • Proofreaders: Claire Maby, Barb Stussy, Al Madocs Book design by Ralph Fowler, adapted for ebook by Eva Windler Cover design: Elena Giavaldi Cover photograph: plainpicture/Sven Hagolani The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland.

https://eu- contact.penguin.ie ep_prh_7.3a_155239685_c0_r0 OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS Dedication Epigraph Paradeability Encounters with Unexpected Animals Soldier of Fortune Palomino Dixon Young Life Playing the Ghost Miss McElroy The Beginning of Wisdom Time of the Preacher Caiman Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses Acknowledgments About the Author OceanofPDF.com In memory of Mike Anzaldúa, and for Joe Wilson, Cheryl Pfoff, and Vanessa Furse Jackson, and for Julie Barer OceanofPDF.com verifiable.

Have I included the memory of the animals. The animals’ memories. Are they still here. Are we —Jorie Graham, “Are We” OceanofPDF.com PARADEABILITY Serious clowns have their faces painted onto blown-out goose eggs. My son tells me this on the drive from Corpus Christi to Houston. The custom began in the sixteenth century, a method of remembering makeup patterns, but now it serves as copyright.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 8dfb458b3f455834
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,668,207 bytes (1.591 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780399590153, 9780399590160
• Pages: 172
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 271.71 minutes
• Total Words: 54,343
• Total Characters: 302,633
• Average Words per Page: 315.95
• Average Characters per Page: 1759.49

Most Frequent Words

said (576), like (245), he’d (190), one (123), i’d (118), back (117), i’m (102), father (99), say (98), didn’t (97), thought (93), dixon (91), says (88), maybe (87), mother (85), he’s (84), room (81), she’d (81), you’re (81), never (76), now (75), think (75), time (74), know (74), home (74), night (73), house (70), still (69), man (64), water (64), way (63), it’s (62), behind (61), eyes (61), knew (61), get (60), don’t (60), two (59), see (58), door (58), atlee (57), truck (57), got (56), another (56), around (56), something (56), asher (55), want (55), left (55), every (54), old (54), long (54), couldn’t (53), wanted (52), called (51), last (51), heard (50), make (48), saw (48), took (48), away (47), head (47), good (47), gone (46), looked (46), came (46), told (46), asked (45), holland (45), come (44), someone (44), little (44), made (44), first (43), tell (43), right (43), started (42), travis (42), years (41), she’s (41), carlos (41), without (40), horses (40), always (40), went (40), trying (40), day (40), horse (40), light (39), morning (39), open (39), that’s (39), felt (38), school (38), parents (38), air (38), they’d (38), work (37), front (37), find (37).

PDF Download