The Nobody People, Bob Proehl [best ereader for epub .TXT] 📗

Praise for THE NOBODY PEOPLE

“[A] complex novel about the cost of being different…The characters are intricately human, each rendered in minute and thoughtful detail that pushes back against stereotypes….[The Nobody People] leaves the reader eagerly awaiting the next installment.”

—Publishers Weekly

“[Bob] Proehl masterfully uses science fiction as a lens to examine social inequality and human evil; readers will find it hard to believe that they’re not actually looking into the near future.”

—Booklist

“Thought-provoking…As intriguing yet frightening as the premise of The Nobody People is, it also leaves the reader with a glimmer of hope.”

—New York Journal of Books

“The Nobody People smashes the ordinary and the extraordinary together for an electric story of modern-day America. Proehl’s strong narrative voice, his complex characters working to survive in a world that fears them, and the conflict and empowerment that comes when you must stand up for who you are all turn The Nobody People into a thrilling story, one that will certainly resonate with its readers long after they finish.”

—Martin Cahill, author of “Godmeat”

“Bob Proehl is one of those authors you can trust to guide you out of your comfort zone. The Nobody People is a gripping, haunting, and complex book, perfect for our times. It will take you on a warrior’s journey. In fact, I’m reminded of something Gandalf said to Bilbo at the outset of The Hobbit: ‘If you do [come back], you won’t be the same.’ ”

—Michael Poore, author of Reincarnation Blues

The Nobody People is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2019 by Bob Proehl

Excerpt from The Somebody People by Bob Proehl copyright © 2020 by Bob Proehl

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

DEL REY is a registered trademark and the CIRCLE colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, in 2019.

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book The Somebody People by Bob Proehl. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Proehl, Bob, author.

Title: The nobody people / Bob Proehl.

Description: New York: Del Rey, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2019011880 (print) | LCCN 2019013141 (ebook) | ISBN 9781524798963 (Ebook) | ISBN 9781524798970 (trade paperback)

Subjects: | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3616.R643 (ebook) | LCC PS3616.R643 N63 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2019011880

Ebook ISBN 9781524798963

randomhousebooks.com

Book design by Edwin Vazquez, adapted for ebook

Cover design: David G. Stevenson

Cover illustration: © Felix Tindall

ep_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Prologue: The Incident at Powder Basin

Part One: An Unearthly Child

A Null Sphere

The One-Legged Detective

Owen Curry and the Shimmering Room

Room 152

The Door That Wasn’t There

The Boy in the Box

Kept Like a Secret

Part Two: Academy for the Arts

The Tour

Academy Fight Song

The Physical Kids

Fade Away and Radiate

The Interview

The Pageant

Abscess

Part Three: The Tower

The Day the Story Broke

A Walk in the Park

The Orientation

Debriefing

Owen Curry and the Friend Who Came Back

This Is Happening

Part Four: Annus Mirabilis

The Angel of Montgomery

Leftovers

A Sort of Homecoming

The Confession in Powder Basin

Enclave

Coney Island Baby

Part Five: Last Year’s Man

Owen Curry and the Full Bizarre

Examination

On the Air

Glitch

The Five of Cups

Arrival

The Excommunication

Bargain

Part Six: The Next Movement

Gathering

Owen Curry and the Helter-Skelter

The Investigation

Crazy Classic Life

The White Van

Between the Bars

Barricade

Faction

Fall

Part Seven: New Skin for the Old Ceremony

Wake

This Is How We Walk on the Moon

The Last Visit

Working for the Clampdown

Owen Curry and the Judgment of Powder Basin

The Diamond Sea

Device

This Must Be the Place

Part Eight: Putting Out Fires with Gasoline

Pulse

Legislation

Defense

Siege

Aftermath

Epilogue: In Our Rags of Light

Dedication

Acknowledgments

By Bob Proehl

About the Author

Excerpt from The Somebody People

The earth keeps some vibration going

There in your heart, and that is you.

—EDGAR LEE MASTERS, “Fiddler Jones”

When reporters from the Gillette News-Record asked the survivors of the Powder Basin mine collapse how they survived, all twenty-three gave variations on the same answer: It was an act of God. The will of God. God’s own mercy. Bruce Bennett, cornered on camera by the blond anchor from K-DEV down in Cheyenne, said it was the darnedest thing. Like the hand of God Hisself reached down and pulled them out of that pit.

The twenty-three survivors hadn’t had time to confer. Once they were past the blockage, they trudged upward to the mouth of Shaft L in silence. They emerged, owls in the late autumn daylight. News vans were already there. Spouses with supervisors who let them off when the news broke or with baby-sitters who could show up on short notice waited within the circle of cameras, along with gawkers down from Gillette, phones ready to catch footage of miners or their bodies coming out of the tunnel.

The survivors had been underground nine hours. There was six solid feet of rubble between them and the surface, too much for God to cut through. God had nothing to do with getting them out. It was Tom Guthridge’s oldest boy, Sam, whose forged employment papers said he was eighteen.

—

The Friday afterward, the Powder Basin mine was closed. All 140 employees were given the full day off with pay. The holding company went over maintenance records and noted how long since an inspector had seen the inside of Shaft L. The best course of action was to keep everyone happy.

The men who hadn’t been in Shaft L gravitated toward the Chariot Lounge in Gillette that afternoon. Some said they’d had a bad feeling when they came in Thursday morning. Many claimed they’d heard the shaft go. They lied to feel like part of it. The lies were the way they understood the accident. True stories, made up after the fact.

Among the survivors, twenty spent