{"id":13701,"date":"2019-05-16T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/accident-by-aharon-levy\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:20:57","slug":"accident-by-aharon-levy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2019\/05\/16\/accident-by-aharon-levy\/","title":{"rendered":"Accident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-social-links is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-social-links-is-layout-765c4724 wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-facebook  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61556140010887\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12 2C6.5 2 2 6.5 2 12c0 5 3.7 9.1 8.4 9.9v-7H7.9V12h2.5V9.8c0-2.5 1.5-3.9 3.8-3.9 1.1 0 2.2.2 2.2.2v2.5h-1.3c-1.2 0-1.6.8-1.6 1.6V12h2.8l-.4 2.9h-2.3v7C18.3 21.1 22 17 22 12c0-5.5-4.5-10-10-10z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-instagram  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/boudin_mcneese\/\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12,4.622c2.403,0,2.688,0.009,3.637,0.052c0.877,0.04,1.354,0.187,1.671,0.31c0.42,0.163,0.72,0.358,1.035,0.673 c0.315,0.315,0.51,0.615,0.673,1.035c0.123,0.317,0.27,0.794,0.31,1.671c0.043,0.949,0.052,1.234,0.052,3.637 s-0.009,2.688-0.052,3.637c-0.04,0.877-0.187,1.354-0.31,1.671c-0.163,0.42-0.358,0.72-0.673,1.035 c-0.315,0.315-0.615,0.51-1.035,0.673c-0.317,0.123-0.794,0.27-1.671,0.31c-0.949,0.043-1.233,0.052-3.637,0.052 s-2.688-0.009-3.637-0.052c-0.877-0.04-1.354-0.187-1.671-0.31c-0.42-0.163-0.72-0.358-1.035-0.673 c-0.315-0.315-0.51-0.615-0.673-1.035c-0.123-0.317-0.27-0.794-0.31-1.671C4.631,14.688,4.622,14.403,4.622,12 s0.009-2.688,0.052-3.637c0.04-0.877,0.187-1.354,0.31-1.671c0.163-0.42,0.358-0.72,0.673-1.035 c0.315-0.315,0.615-0.51,1.035-0.673c0.317-0.123,0.794-0.27,1.671-0.31C9.312,4.631,9.597,4.622,12,4.622 M12,3 C9.556,3,9.249,3.01,8.289,3.054C7.331,3.098,6.677,3.25,6.105,3.472C5.513,3.702,5.011,4.01,4.511,4.511 c-0.5,0.5-0.808,1.002-1.038,1.594C3.25,6.677,3.098,7.331,3.054,8.289C3.01,9.249,3,9.556,3,12c0,2.444,0.01,2.751,0.054,3.711 c0.044,0.958,0.196,1.612,0.418,2.185c0.23,0.592,0.538,1.094,1.038,1.594c0.5,0.5,1.002,0.808,1.594,1.038 c0.572,0.222,1.227,0.375,2.185,0.418C9.249,20.99,9.556,21,12,21s2.751-0.01,3.711-0.054c0.958-0.044,1.612-0.196,2.185-0.418 c0.592-0.23,1.094-0.538,1.594-1.038c0.5-0.5,0.808-1.002,1.038-1.594c0.222-0.572,0.375-1.227,0.418-2.185 C20.99,14.751,21,14.444,21,12s-0.01-2.751-0.054-3.711c-0.044-0.958-0.196-1.612-0.418-2.185c-0.23-0.592-0.538-1.094-1.038-1.594 c-0.5-0.5-1.002-0.808-1.594-1.038c-0.572-0.222-1.227-0.375-2.185-0.418C14.751,3.01,14.444,3,12,3L12,3z M12,7.378 c-2.552,0-4.622,2.069-4.622,4.622S9.448,16.622,12,16.622s4.622-2.069,4.622-4.622S14.552,7.378,12,7.378z M12,15 c-1.657,0-3-1.343-3-3s1.343-3,3-3s3,1.343,3,3S13.657,15,12,15z M16.804,6.116c-0.596,0-1.08,0.484-1.08,1.08 s0.484,1.08,1.08,1.08c0.596,0,1.08-0.484,1.08-1.08S17.401,6.116,16.804,6.116z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>Accident<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Aharon Levy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">For fifty-seven years the river had done what it was supposed to and nobody had given it a thought. But now its level was down to where it was all some people talked about, revealing the slimy stones and rusted shopping carts it had always hidden like dirty but uninteresting secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">At the enrichment complex they were studying contingency plans in which they\u2019d never believed. Inside pipes, through separators and condensers, uranium hexafluoride gas whizzed as it had since Eisenhower, while seventy and ninety miles to the northeast the turbines were running out of water to churn into power. Without hydro the gas would cease being gas. Then the complex would become something else, someone else\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">People acted surprised about all this, even though upriver it hadn\u2019t rained more than a piss for twenty-seven months, even though for longer than that the idiots on the right in Congress had been trying to teach the idiots on the left something-or-other, blocking funding for the grid interconnect which would have made all this worry moot. People mostly pretended it would be fine, but nobody knew. Tom Kerry didn\u2019t know, and wasn\u2019t pretending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Also, they\u2019d found his son Norris, who hadn\u2019t, after all, gone to tend bar in Key West but had made it only twenty-six miles to Blandville. Every time Tom thought of the town\u2019s absurd name he shook his head. Who\u2019d thought it was a good idea?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Police had found Norris\u2019s car and inside it five and a half pounds of meth, an albino ball python, and a very high girl who wasn\u2019t quite sixteen. They\u2019d found Norris himself a quarter mile away, crouched behind a pyramid of highway salt left over from the nothing winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">And now Ed Rawle, who\u2019d drawn up Tom and Malene\u2019s wills, leaned back, soft fingers over soft belly, and said, \u201cI\u2019m just not sure Norris is the victim here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Tom didn\u2019t respond. Ed was a talker, a lawyer, so he went on, \u201cIt\u2019s just that he didn\u2019t have any in his system. They tested. So.\u201d Ed had known about Norris before Tom had. It was unclear to Tom whether Norris had used his one call\u2014was this real, anyway, or a myth?\u2014on Rawle; he surely hadn\u2019t used it on his parents. \u201cAnd it was his snake, too, registered to him and everything. An animal like that costs thousands. It seemed to them he might have been in charge. Norris was always smart. So.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cHe\u2019s been talking Key West.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWell, Key West\u2019s expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cInteresting, where not being high makes you guilty.\u201d There was no point arguing, Tom understood, but here he was. \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve had the same job thirty-four years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cI know that,\u201d Ed said, sounding like he hadn\u2019t but wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cThose pipes have to run nonstop, twenty-four-seven. No downtime. You think, same job, so long, what\u2019s wrong with him? But Westinghouse or whoever wouldn\u2019t have been exciting after this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWe make the stuff that makes the bombs, that\u2019s all we do, and we\u2019ve never dropped one. Every day I\u2019m grateful my job\u2019s useless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In his mind it had been a refutation, but in his mouth it was just words. Ed kept silent a few respectful seconds. \u201cI wish I could help more but this isn\u2019t what I do. I\u2019ll give you the name of an excellent criminal lawyer. Excellent. Tell him I sent you.\u201d He licked his lips, quickly. \u201cJust so he\u2019ll make time for you, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cYou know what engineers spend all day thinking about? Failure. What can go wrong, how to prevent it. Then we have to explain that to whoever\u2019s in charge. Engineers are never in charge. We don\u2019t have the personality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cI think, maybe, none of my business, just an observation, maybe you should be thinking about your boy now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cNorris? He\u2019s fine. He has nothing to do with any snake.\u201d How good he\u2019d imagined it would feel to say just what he thought. But it was still just talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In the parking structure Tom whispered, \u201cFuck,\u201d as he\u2019d started to after the drought\u2019s first year. The swearing was for the river; the whispering for Malene, who some ridiculous part of him believed might still hear. That thing about the uranium wasn\u2019t quite true. They\u2019d been reprocessing only since the 90s, old Soviet-or-Russian-or-whatever warheads into new American ones. But the idea appealed, hard and diligent work in the service of something useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cGoddamn.\u201d The road was slick, a misty rain falling. Paducah itself had gotten some rain, but rain there was useless; the river just passed through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Norris was sweet, sly, but not that sly. And he was a good boy; he\u2019d come home when they told him to. This was before he failed out, so there was nothing on his record to stop him from returning. The worst he was guilty of was being young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Malene hadn\u2019t seen the point of coming. She\u2019d prayed on it, and Tom couldn\u2019t say that was less useful than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cShit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He didn\u2019t like how she\u2019d become happy and placid, didn\u2019t like Pastor Gaines at Gentle Army\u2014what kind of name was that for a church, for anything?\u2014who accepted a slice of cake not dutifully but with actual hunger. Gaines had three pretty daughters, just like a dirty joke, and for a while this had been enough to bring Norris to church. Tom understood his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Eight days he\u2019d been missing, or anyway hadn\u2019t answered their calls. He\u2019d become a kingpin in eight days?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The squirrel was in the street, darting as if all its problems would be solved on the other side. Tom swerved and the animal swerved with him as if they\u2019d planned it. Tom heard a crunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The thing to do was keep moving, but he hated those road-smears, primitive and grotesque. Because his mind had its own paths he thought of the dials on his console, ancient and sturdy, like eight hundred meat thermometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Norris had always done his own thing, aggravatingly, but as a parent you had to be proud, didn\u2019t you, of your kid finding his own way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Tom left his hazard-lit car and walked ten steps, twenty, thirty, but apart from bottle-caps and cigarettes, there was nothing. No blood, no fur. More traffic appeared, honking at him like the damn fool he was, bending to examine nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He was grinning like a fool too. People were too quick to see meaning in things, and Tom was suspicious of all that. Things happened, more things happened, and anything beyond that was speculation. But look at the sky, no longer misting but pouring, clouds headed upriver where they might actually do some good. Look at the road, clean grumpy asphalt already exhaling its rainbows. His soaked shoes took him further from his car, though as far as he was considered he\u2019d already been proven wrong: the squirrel had gotten away. A miracle, a sign. What else could it be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theotheraharon\"><strong>Aharon Levy<\/strong><\/a> has been published here and there and has been to this or that residency. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and recently completed his first novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg 438w, https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1-300x145.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">&lt;&lt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2019\/03\/19\/make-up-forever-by-anu-kandikuppa\/\">Back<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2019\/05\/21\/apple-by-joey-poole\/\">Next<\/a> &gt;&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">To learn more about submitting your work to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/boudin-submissions\/\">Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University&#8217;s Creative Writing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/mfa-application-submissions\/\">MFA prog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accident Aharon Levy __________ For fifty-seven years the river had done what it was supposed to and nobody had given it a thought. But now its level was down to where it was all some people talked about, revealing the slimy stones and rusted shopping carts it had always hidden like dirty but uninteresting secrets.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[253,25],"tags":[70,26],"class_list":["post-13701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boudin-2019-spring-edition","category-fiction","tag-aharonlevy","tag-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13701"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22513,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701\/revisions\/22513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}