This story by Rebecca Birch for Cricket Magazine takes place in a future world where people live in tall towers and the air is so polluted that they cannot see stars through their windows. The only way to see them is to get above the “eversmog” by standing on top of one of the towers. This is so dangerous that it requires a special key. A disobedient but determined twelve-year-old “borrows” one of these keys. While gazing at the stars in awe, she learns that she has a special destiny. Themes: the wonder of nature, environmental degradation, courage, ambition, destiny. More…
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
In this story by Robert Olen Butler, an aging Vietnamese-American immigrant prepares for death. As he bids farewell to his family, the restless ghost of his once good friend, Ho Chi Minh, visits him over several nights, triggering memories of the past. He is proud of his daughter, who maintains Vietnamese traditions, but not so his son-in-law and grandson, who have been involved in a political murder. All he wants now is to be reunited with his wife and other dead loved-ones in the “village square”. Themes include aging and death, memories, family, friendship, tradition, politics and war. More…
The First Year of My Life
The protagonist of this light-hearted anti-war story by Muriel Spark is an omniscient baby who can “tune in” to world events and the thoughts of famous people from her crib. Born in the final year of World War I, she contrasts the bloody battlefields of Europe with the almost business as usual atmosphere in London. She also shares her observations of selected world leaders, politicians, literary figures and celebrities. Themes: the horrors and futility of war; the British public’s ignorance of the true extent of human suffering; the lack of moral leadership from influential members of the artistic community. More…
The Eye
In this story from Paul Bowles, a long-term expatriate living in Tangier investigates the death of a fellow expatriate he has never met. The man died from an apparent digestive illness, suspected to be the result of gradual poisoning. Rumor among the expatriate community blamed his night watchman, who had both motive (a reported legacy) and opportunity (he had replaced the original cook, purportedly with a relative). The narrator’s investigation suggests that rather than murder, the dead man was the victim of a ritual healing gone wrong. Themes: expatriate lifestyle (paranoia, detachment, idle gossip), isolation, superstition, criminality vs. fate. More…
The Sea Beyond
This story by N. V. M. Gonzalez describes a journey on a Philippine passenger-cargo ship from a small port to its provincial capital. In addition to paying passengers, the ship is transporting a young cargardor (stevedore) who was critically injured during the loading of cargo to the capital for medical treatment. Tending him are his pregnant wife and her mother. Despite a supposed telegraph request for a doctor meet the ship on arrival, as the ship departs the capital they are left stranded on the dock with no sign of help. Themes include suffering, inhumanity, social class, superstition. More…