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
"You understand?" I tell you, I who stood under it, that it was queer
enough to hear that voice, clear, strong, and yet somehow shattered,
passing over our heads. "You understand, Joshua? Andrew's come back to
the wedding, and now I'll marry you--_if you wish_."
Even yet Joshua did not speak, nor did the dry anger of his face change.
He came walking, taking his time, first along the pews at the front,
then up the length of the aisle. Coming down a few steps, Mary waited
for him, and there was a kind of a smile now on her lips.
Joshua halted before her. Folding his hands behind him he looked her
over slowly from head to foot.
"You lie!" That was all he said.
"Oh, no, Joshua. I'm not lying. Andrew has come for the wedding."
"You lie," he repeated in the same impassive tone. "You know I know you
lie, Mary, for you know I know that Andrew is dead."
"Yes, yes--" She was fumbling to clear a damp fold of her gown from
something held in the crook of her arm. "But I didn't say----"
With that she had the burden uncovered and held forth in her
outstretched hand.
She held it out in the light where all of us could see--the thing
Rolldown had discarded from his treasures, that I had picked up and been
robbed of in the kindly dark--the old brown casket-thing with the
polished surfaces and the bits of intricate and ghastly carvings that
had once let in the light of day and the sound of words--the old, brown,
sea-bitten, sand-scoured skull of Andrew Blake, with the two gold teeth
in the upper jaw dulled by the tarnishing tides that had brought it up
slowly from its bed in the bottom of the sea. And to think that I had
carried it, and felt of it, and not known what it was!
It lay there supine in the nest of Mary's palm, paying us no heed
whatever, but fixing its hollow regard on the shadows among the rafters.
And Joshua, the brother, made no sound.
His face had gone a curious color, like the pallor of green things
sprouting under a stone. His knees caved a little under his weight, and
as we watched we saw his hands moving over his own breast, where the
heart was, with a strengthless gesture, like a caress. After what seemed
a long while we heard his voice, a whisper of horrible fascination.
"_Turn it over!_"
Mary said nothing, nor did she move to do as he bade. Like some awful
play of a cat with a mouse she held quiet and watched him.
"Mary--do as I say--_and turn it over_!"
Her continued, unanswering silence seemed finally to rouse him. His
voice turned shrill. Drawing on some last hidden reservoir of strength,
he cried, "Give it to me! It's mine!" and made an astonishing dart, both
hands clawing for the relic. But my cousin Duncan was there to step in
his way and send him carroming along the fringe of the crowd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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