Slowly, Slowly in the Wind

Post category:Short Stories

Slowly, Slowly in the Wind: Short story by Patricia Highsmith In this story by Patricia Highsmith, doctors warn “Skip” Skipperton, a notoriously bad-tempered business executive, to slow down or risk early death. His answer is to buy Coldstream Heights, a small but comfortable farm. Skip’s only problem is that the titular “stream” is a few meters inside a neighbor’s property, which the owner won’t sell or lease at any price. Not used to being refused, Skip is enraged. When his beloved daughter elopes with the neighbor’s son, he kills the old man. Unfortunately for Skip, the murder is exposed by a children’s Halloween prank. Themes: anger, narcissism, pride, revenge, justice.

Neighbours

Post category:Short Stories

Neighbours: Short story by Moe Moe (Inya) Set in 1970s Burma, this story by Moe Moe (aka Inya) uses the experiences of a young couple with a four-month-old child to explore the theme of “neighborliness”. Moving to the suburbs after living with family “downtown”, they find the neighbors friendly and helpful but also experience incidences of prying, malicious gossip, quarreling, greed, and pressure to keep up appearances. Moving to an apartment closer to the city, they find an individualistic environment where nobody even talks to their neighbors. This leaves the poor protagonist with no idea what sort of neighborhood she wants to live in.

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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

The Challenge
Grade 5-6 Story by Gary Soto. A young boy looking for romance learns how Not to impress girls. Rather than being himself, he tries to prove how good he is: first academically by acing a history quiz, and later through a boastful lie and ill-fated racquet ball game.
Rules of the Game
Young Adult Story by Amy Tan. The title refers to both the game of chess and the game of life. A mother’s term for one important rule is the art of invisible strength (self-control). When her eight-year-old daughter teaches herself chess and becomes a national champion, both break this rule.
Amnesty
Novelette by Octavia Butler. A woman, kidnapped at age eleven and subjected to cruel experiments by an advanced alien race inhabiting Earth’s deserts, is now an Interpreter for one of their “communities”. Her current mission: to “calm” and prepare six recruits for positions translating for other communities.

Diamond Dust: A Tragedy
Short Story by Anita Desai. A puppy of “indecipherable” breed brought home by a conservative Indian public servant causes havoc in his home and community as it grows into an almost uncontrollable, ferocious “badmash”. For its doting owner, this leads to condemnation, ridicule, despair, and death.
The Willow Walk
Novelette by Sinclair Lewis. Twins Jasper and John Holt couldn’t be more different: Jasper, a well-dressed, respectable bank teller and admired member of the community; John, a disheveled, reclusive religious fanatic. Yet they are the same person, a skilled actor carrying out an elaborate bank heist.
The Machine That Won the War
Short Story by Isaac Asimov. Three men meet after the Earth’s successful war against the Denebians. Ironically, the war wasn’t won by a powerful computer (Multivac) or decisions by any of the three ‘experts’. It was won either by chance or because of problems experienced by the enemy.
Earthmen Bearing Gifts
Quick Read by Fredrick Brown. The people of Earth and Mars have planned an exchange of gifts. Each civilization is more advanced in an important area of science and can do much to help the other. Earth’s first “gift”, delivered in an unmanned spacecraft, is not what the Martians expected.

Sleeping Beauty
European Folktales. A reverse chronology of the three folktales behind this classic children's story: the Brothers Grimm’s Briar-Rose (1812); Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1697); and Giambattista Basile’s Sun, Moon and Talia (1634). As might be expected, the further back you go, the more brutal the storyline.
Désirée’s Baby
Short Story by Kate Chopin. A rich cotton farmer is proud, bigoted and harsh on his slaves. He marries an orphaned neighbor for her beauty and is not concerned about her unknown background until they have a mixed-race baby. Some weeks later, he uncovers an even more devastating secret.
Night Driver
Short Story by Italo Calvino. A man speeds to his girlfriend’s house to apologize about a phone argument during which he called off their relationship. He needs to get there quickly, because she threatened to call a rival. His biggest problem in getting there on time… he thinks too much!

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