The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories -- 20th century -- Bibliography; Short stories -- 20th century -- Indexes; Short stories, American
Jasper did let himself be persuaded to go away for at least a week-end.
He would run up north, to Wakamin Lake, the coming Friday, he said; he
would get some black-bass fishing, and be back on Monday or Tuesday.
Before he went he would make up the pay rolls for the Saturday payments
and turn them over to the other teller. The president thanked him for
his faithfulness, and as was his not infrequent custom invited Jasper to
his house for the evening of the next day—Thursday.
That Wednesday evening Jasper’s brother John appeared at the Soul Hope
meeting in Rosebank. When he had gone home and had magically turned back
into Jasper this Jasper did not return the wig and garments of John to
the bureau but packed them into a suitcase, took the suitcase to his
room in Vernon and locked it in his wardrobe.
Jasper was amiable at dinner at the president’s house on Thursday, but
he was rather silent, and as his head still throbbed he left the house
early—at nine-thirty. Sedately, carrying his gray silk gloves in one
hand and pompously swinging his stick with the other, he walked from the
president’s house on the fashionable boulevard back to the center of
Vernon. He entered the public garage in which his car was stored.
He commented to the night attendant: “Head aches. Guess I’ll take the
’bus out and get some fresh air.”
He drove away at not more than fifteen miles an hour. He headed south.
When he had reached the outskirts of the city he speeded up to a
consistent twenty-five miles an hour. He settled down in his seat with
the unmoving steadiness of the long-distance driver: his body quiet
except for the tiny subtle movements of his foot on the accelerator, of
his hands on the steering wheel—his right hand across the wheel, holding
it at the top, his left elbow resting easily on the cushioned edge of
his seat and his left hand merely touching the wheel.
He drove in that southern direction for fifteen miles—almost to the town
of Wanagoochie. Then by a rather poor side road he turned sharply to the
north and west, and making a huge circle about the city drove toward the
town of St. Clair. The suburb of Rosebank, in which his brother John
lived, is also north of Vernon. These directions were of some importance
to him: Wanagoochie eighteen miles south of the mother city of Vernon;
Rosebank, on the other hand, north, eight miles north, of Vernon; and
St. Clair twenty miles north—about as far north of Vernon as Wanagoochie
is south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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