Throwback Thursday: ‘Old Gifts’ by James Sallis

The Ties that Bind

‘Old Gifts’ by renowned crime writer James Sallis was our feature story in the Autumn 2022 issue of Pulp Literature. While ostensibly about superheroes, this touching tale is really about family, quiet heroism, and loss. Enjoy this excerpt, or pick up Issue 36 at the throwback price of $8 till the end of March.

Old Gifts

by James Sallis

When she was young, which was a long time ago, my mother was a superhero. They’d show her the maps or building plans or whatever, and she’d run over there at close to the speed of sound and save the day. She saved so many days, Dad used to say, they had to add another year onto the calendar.

She and Dad and my teachers, since they were all old too, told me about this. I don’t remember any of it because most of it happened before we were born, me and brother Liam. That was when she settled down to take care of us instead of everyone else. We did find her old costume in the back of a closet, with birthday and Christmas presents people gave her still in their boxes. The costume was pink, and shiny like quartz. Moths or something had eaten holes in it. 

Twins have the same DNA, right? But Liam got whatever the hero stuff is and I didn’t, not a shred of it. He’s grown now, both of us are, and he claims he doesn’t have anything like that, no stupid damn superpowers, and never did. I’m just like you, he says, just like everyone else. Says he doesn’t remember all those nights with the two of us together in our cute little crib that Dad made, me reaching out to grab Liam’s leg to keep him from floating up, out, and away. Or how he used to open the window while we lay there across the room, to let the horned owl we considered our pet come in and visit.

Guess we’ve both floated out and away since. The world’s a different place. 

When we were seven or eight, not long after we found Mom’s old costume, Liam traded his lunch with some kid at school for a sketchbook. Within days it was filled with drawings of our room, our house, the neighbourhood, all of them recognizable but with things subtly off here and there: details, proportions, perspective. Even then I wondered if he was trying to create a duplicate of our world, or another into which he might escape.

Liam’s an artist now. And I’m a stern man, a serious man. Oh yes. Maybe you’ve read my columns on the economy for The Standard. Someone must. And while I’ve no background whatsoever in economics, I do the housework and stable-cleaning required — read what other journalists write, subscribe to a magazine or two, get books from the library and online. But what it mostly amounts to is interviewing authorities on finance and financial institutions, then doing my best to translate what comes out of their mouths into something ordinary folks might understand. A lot of the time, since what they actually say is pretty much gobbledygook, I just make up what I write.

Read the full story in Pulp Literature Issue 36, Autumn 2023, on sale till the end of March.

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