This is the writer's voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

I'm Michelle Moses, producer of the writer's voice, In for Deborah Treisman.

On this episode of the writer's voice, we'll hear Patrick Langley read his story, Life with Spider,

from the February 5th, 2024 issue of the magazine.

Langley is the author of two novels,

Arcotti and The Variations,

which came out in the UK last year,

and will be published here February 20th.

Now here's Patrick Langley. Life with Spider

This is a story about Fletcher Hardy.

In case you haven't guessed that is not his real name.

He's fine with me telling his story, more than fine, he encouraged me to, on two conditions. The first is that no one be able to trace it to him. He has

theories, persuasive ones, about what can attach to a name online. As for the second condition, I'll get to that later.

My friend is still ashamed of what happened, basically, not that anyone thinks he should

be, me least of all, no matter what happened between us.

The source of his unease, the trouble with the thing he called Spider, began in the summer of

2009. But before we get to that, some context.

Fletcher and I had been friends a few years by that point.

We'd met in a crowded smoking area when we were both

19 and high. That I liked him instantly had something to do with the drugs, but we

only came to love each other after the come down. We prided ourselves on our taste in bands, coil, fugazi and movies, Ozu Kurosawa, and in time our connoisseurship made us devotees of each other as well.

Since we were studying at different universities, Fletcher at Nottingham and me at Leeds, much of our early friendship took place on G-Chat and My Space.

...