The best short stories of 1920, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1920, 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
I'll tell you where we caught Rolldown. It was before the church, within
the very outpouring of the colored windows. When Miah discovered who his
blowing captive was his rage, for a moment, was something to remember.
Then it passed and left him blank and dreary with defeat. The
beachcomber himself, pale as putty through his half-grown beard, was
beseeching us from the pink penumbra of the Apostle Paul: "You seen it?
You seen what I seen?" but Miah wouldn't hear him, and mounting the
steps and passing dull-footed through the vestry, came into the veiled
light and heavy scent of breath and flowers. Following at his heels I
saw the faces of women turned to our entrance with expectation.
Do you know the awful sense of a party that has fallen flat? Do you know
the desolation of a hope long deferred--once more deferred?
Joshua was standing in the farthest corner, beyond the pews where Miss
Beedie's Sunday School class held. Looking across the sea of inquiring
and disappointed faces, I saw him there, motionless, his back turned on
all of us. He had been standing so for an hour, they said, staring out
of a window at his own shadow cast on the churchyard fence.
It was a distressing moment. When Miah had sunk down in a rear pew and
bowed his head in his hands I really think you could have heard the
fall of the proverbial pin. Then, with a scarcely audible rustle, all
the faces became the backs of heads and all the eyes went to the figure
unstirring by the corner window. And after that, with the same accord,
the spell of waiting was broken, whispering ran over the pews, the
inevitable was accepted. Folks got up, shuffling their feet, putting on
their wraps with the familiar, mild contortions, still whispering,
whispering--"What a shame!"--"The idea!"--"I want to know!"
But some among them must have been still peeping at Joshua, for the hush
that fell was sudden and complete. Turning, I saw that he had turned
from the window at last, showing us his face.
* * * * *
Now we knew what he had been doing for himself in that long hour. His
face was once more the mask of a face we had known so many years as
Joshua Blake, dry, bitter, self-contained, the eyes shaded under the
lids, the lips as thin as hate. He faced us, but it was not at us he
looked; it was beyond us, over our heads, at the corner where the door
was.
There, framed in the doorway, stood the tardy bride, a figure as white
and stark as pagan stone, and a look on her face like the awful,
tranquil look of a sleep-walker. Neither did she pay any heed to us, but
over our heads she met the eyes of the bridegroom. So for a long breath
they confronted each other, steadily. Then we heard her speak.
"He's come!" she said in a clear voice. "Andrew's come back again."
Still she looked at Joshua. He did not move or reply.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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