Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry

Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry: Short story by Elizabeth McCrackenIn this story by Elizabeth McCracken, a homeless woman with no family has spent her life traveling the countryside and staying at the homes of people she says are distant relatives. Now in her eighties, she visits a young couple claiming to be the niece of the man’s great-grandfather. While there, she forms an unlikely attachment to a neglected, undisciplined young boy living nearby. When the truth comes out and it is time for her to leave, she considers taking the boy with her. Themes include homelessness, deception, family, loss, connection.

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The Totara Tree

The Totara Tree: Short story by Roderick FinlaysonThis light-hearted story from Roderick Finlayson is set in 1930’s New Zealand. A small Maori community is in conflict with the Pakeha (white European) authorities who plan to cut down a sacred tree to build new power lines. An old woman climbs the tree and refuses to come down. After an initial confrontation, the authorities depart for the night. This leads to a drunken celebration, which causes a house-fire that threatens the tree. When rescuers discover that the old woman in the tree has died, one of them comes up with a foolproof plan to save the tree.

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A Night in the Hills

A Night in the Hills: Short story by Paz Marquez BenitezThis story from Paz Marquez Benitez deals with something many people caught up in a routine job or coming to a crossroads in life go through… dreaming of escape to an alternative, seemingly more appealing lifestyle. City-based Gerardo has always dreamed of living in the countryside. Recently widowed, he accompanies a friend to inspect some newly opened public land. After a single night in the jungle, he decides that life “in the hills” is not as appealing as he had imagined. Themes: imagination (the grass is always greener), city vs. country life, discontent, enlightenment, acceptance.

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The Decapitated Chicken

The Decapitated Chicken: Short story by Horacio QuirogaIn this story by Horacio Quiroga a loving couple has four sons, each of whom soon degenerates into idiocy. The couple become bitter and resentful, each blaming the other for their sons’ congenital imbecility. When a daughter is born who does not share the condition, the parents ignore the boys, leaving them in the care of a servant who brutally mistreats them. One day the boys watch as the cook decapitates a chicken. Fascinated by the sight of blood, they later imitate the act with the only small ‘animal’ available. Themes include mental illness, despair, rejection and neglect, cruelty, violence.

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The Distance to Andromeda

The Distance to Andromeda: Short story by Gregorio C. BrillantesIn this story by Gregorio C. Brillantes, a thirteen-year-old Philippine boy comes to terms with his place in the universe. After watching a science-fiction movie featuring post-apocalyptic survivors traversing the vastness of space searching for an Earth-like planet, the boy questions the significance of his existence. The answer comes to him after dinner that night, as he sits on the porch with his close-knit family. The size of the universe (The Distance to Andromeda) is irrelevant. He is important to his family, and his current place is with them. Themes include doubt, family, love, faith, security, father-son relationships.

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Astronomer’s Wife

Astronomer's Wife: Short story by Kay BoyleThis story by Kay Boyle explores an empty relationship between a woman and her astronomer husband, and how a brief encounter with a “down to earth” plumber opens her mind to what could be. The astronomer appears more in love with his work than his wife, treating her purely as someone whose role it is to maintain the household order. The plumber, who treats her with respect, communicates freely, and symbolizes the physical world, highlights the dysfunctional nature of her marriage. Themes: control, gender roles, loneliness and lack of fulfilment in marriage, the intellectual vs. physical worlds, epiphany/revelation.

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As If It Had Never Happened

As If It Had Never Happened: Short story by Witthayakon ChiangkunIn this story by Witthayakon Chiangkun, a busload of enthusiastic Bangkok college students descend upon an isolated, poverty-stricken rice farming village as part of a 1960s national community development program. Despite their best efforts, differences in speech, dress and perceived social class make integration difficult. They have been sent during their school vacation to build a Community Hall, something the contented villagers neither asked for or need. Apart from the narrator, a young teen, the Hall’s only users are water-buffaloes seeking shelter from the sun. Themes include identity, innocence, city vs. country cultural divide, politicization, benevolence, bureaucratic disconnection.

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Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown: Short story by Nathaniel HawthorneIn this story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a pious young Puritan named Goodman Brown travels into the forest one night to prove that he can resist evil. There he meets a man implied to be the devil, who demonstrates that most of his townspeople, including his wife Faith, embrace witchcraft. Thanks to Brown’s belief in his moral superiority, he accepts everything he sees without question. He fails to appreciate that the visions may have been a dream, contrived by the devil as a way of deceiving him. Themes: temptation (good vs. evil), dreams vs. reality, deceit, paranoia, loss of faith, alienation.

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