What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley; Whirl of Birds Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen

 What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley; Whirl of Birds Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley 

This is a summary of my review. The full review is on LitPick.

What Was Left of Her is very reminiscent of the old Gothic novels like Jane Eyre or Rebecca. It explores the outer atmosphere built on suspenseful austerity and the inner psychology of the troubled people within.

Two sisters, Cassie and Alex reunite after the death of their Aunt Lucie. While going through her house, the two recount their troubled and disturbed childhood with the loving but haunted aunt who raised them and their developmentally disabled potentially sociopathic cousin, Bella. While they remain in Lucie’s coastal home, strange things start happening. Cassie sees someone out of the corner of their eye, hears whispers, and things are mislaid. She is beginning to wonder if maybe Bella who was believed to have disappeared might still be alive. 

The characters inside are troubled miserable souls notably Cassie and Bella. Cassie is a recovering alcoholic with a fragmented memory. It’s hard to tell whether the ghosts are real and surround her or whether they are in her mind. 

Even though Bella is absent through most of the book, she is still very much in the family’s mind and consciousness. She was a seriously troubled woman who may not have been physically capable of controlling herself but also may have been and did not care. The description of her could go either way and is only provided by third person accounts from Cassie and Alex. 

The cousins' personalities and actions merge until it’s hard to tell how much of Cassie’s memories are accurate, whether they were things that Bella did or whether Cassie was projecting and who was haunting who.

Whirl of Birds: Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen’s anthology Whirl of Birds Short Stories is an extremely difficult book that reveals complex narratives and themes.

It captures the abstract, the allegorical, the symbolic, and the metaphorical and turns them into understandable commentaries on the characters themselves and the societies in which they and the Reader inhabit. It's a book that isn't always easy to understand but it's impossible to get out of your mind.

The best stories are: 

“The Puppet Show”-This is a very creepy story that takes the whole “we are mere puppets on a string” metaphor literally. Kids enjoy a puppet show particularly the ongoing adventures of Princess Gina who gets in various cliffhangers that put her in peril. 

This is a very surreal short story that implies a theme of possessing someone's talent and soul. It's not a coincidence that Gina the Puppet shares the same name as Gina, who works for the puppet show and narrates the adventures. In the Puppeteer’s eyes, both Ginas are one and the same and he believes that in owning one, he has control of the other.

He controls Gina who is a brilliant performer and storyteller and tries to manipulate circumstances around her. He invites various male performers to play the character, Radu, to join them almost as though to test her fidelity. Each time they commit transgressions, the men disappear leaving Gina more isolated and dependent on the Puppeteer. 

Significantly, there are three men therefore three tests. Three is a magical number that appears often in fairy tales, like the kind of stories that the Ginas star in. The Puppeteer is writing his own story and controlling the narrative of Gina's life. He treats the human Gina like a character that does whatever he wants them to. She has no story beyond the one that he created for her.

The final pages show both the end of the Puppet Show and Gina's relationship with the Puppeteer. It depicts that the puppeteer can't control everything, that he is as much a pawn, a puppet, in larger games and larger stories that surround him. He can't control changing tastes, that children are always looking for the next big thing and once they find it, they throw out the old thing. He can't control when people get lives of their own and move on and away from him, in effect changing the plot. 

He especially can't control the outside world, when revolutions and violence can occur. Instead, he is left alone with his incomplete story and no one that cares or is even interested enough to listen to it.

“Stolen Light”-This story uses an ominous natural phenomenon as a metaphor for the family observing it. Jose Angel, a young boy, sees a mysterious cloud approaching Las Vegas. Terrified, many have theories but the boy has only certain things in mind. If the world is ending, he wants to get some nagging questions answered about his missing father.

What is particularly compelling and frustrating is the lack of answers that this story provides leaving events ambiguous. There are no definite answers to what the cloud is. In fact the characters' speculations say more about themselves than they do about the phenomena itself. 

Some say the cloud is a government experiment and it's a conspiracy. Others say that it's an impending alien invasion. Still others think that it's the Biblical End of Days. They act how most people would in such a situation. They make their own conclusions in the face of no answers or ones that they disagree with.

Jose Angel is like many teens. He wants his own life. He wants to satisfy those urges that he has for companionship and belonging. He is less concerned with the thing in the sky than he is with the things that are troubling his mind.

Among those questions are those about his father. He asked his mother about him and she gave non-answers which left him as confused as everyone else is about the cloud. Then conveniently an encounter might provide a solution but it only raises more questions and potentially puts Jose Angel in danger.

This story demonstrates how our thoughts can become cloudy with our own questions and speculation. We might get an answer but it may not be what we expected or liked. Sometimes it leads to more questions and makes things even cloudier.

“Whirl of Birds”-Birds usually represent color, flight, independence, and freedom. But sometimes they can also represent dread, violence, scavengers, predators, and death. This is what happens as Bianca is on a drive and is pursued by a very persistent flock of birds that keep following her towards an unpleasant encounter. 

The story is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” as the birds hover around her. Bianca isn’t frightened of the birds. In fact she is enchanted by them and her own thoughts. She wonders where they come from and where they are going. She sees meaning in the sky but can’t yet articulate what it is. 

Her thoughts also drift towards various names like “Steve,” “Andy,” and “Sam.” We are not told of her specific relationships with these men though we can make inferences based on a phone call with Andy and that Sam enters her mind the most but dissipates upon encountering a car crash. These names suggest connections but quite possibly long gone ones of people who were once important to her but now no longer are. They flew away from her mind as she was driving down the road watching birds fly towards her. 

While the birds and Bianca’s thoughts suggest a liberating experience, there is something else that is at play. They could just as easily be symbolic of something more sinister. The birds are vultures, carrion eaters, usually associated with death. They circle over her car like they are waiting for something. Bianca, whose name by the way means “white” or “pale,” drives along with them, almost feeling spiritual and emotionally connected with them. It could very well be that she is symbolic of “Death on a Pale Horse” and it doesn’t care who the people around them are. They are just names that will come to an end soon, not people with experiences, stories. Her history with them doesn’t matter because it will end as all things do.

There is an eerie climactic encounter with an unnamed woman where once again we are told very little about which also parallels “Bianca and the birds as death” symbol. There is no personal connection and they are uncertain and afraid of each other. Bianca’s appearance frightens the woman but the story seems to apply that she is who Bianca is there for. She may resist but she will face Bianca, the birds, and death no matter what. 

“Mahogany”-This story is almost a modern day adaptation of the Greek myth, “Pygmalion and Galatea” in which a sculptor falls in love with his creation but this puts some commentary of modern life to the tale. 

Al, a woodcarver, is not a lonely bachelor like his ancient counterpart. In fact he has a nagging wife and disinterested kids. He has a life that Pygmalion might have envied of people surrounding him and he may have at one time loved. But life got in the way, voices were raised, comments were ridiculed, and arguments broke out. A family that might have been close once is disconnected from each other. They share a last name and a roof over their heads but that’s it. There is nothing but noise, misery, and despair. Al can only find silence and acceptance through his art.

Despite his assurances that he is not having an affair, Al is clearly in love: with his own creation. He carves a beautiful woman out of mahogany. This is someone who will not belittle, or disagree with him, will treat him well, and that can look, act, and say anything he wants. Like the puppeteer with Princess Gina, he has complete ownership of her. She is a fantasy, a story and it’s one in which he can create. 

However unlike the Puppeteer and Pygmalion, it’s a story that he would rather keep for himself. The Mahogany Figure represents the ultimate beauty represented in art. She can never be captured or possessed and certainly never be owned. In Al’s mind, he doesn’t want his carving to come to life, grow old, and become shrill, cold, and unloving. He wants to preserve her as she is, forever young, forever beautiful, forever innocent. 

“Driving With Sara”-This is a haunting story about age and loneliness and how desperate people sometimes do desperate things to make connections. The Narrator is an old woman who is irritated with her pestering daughter and diminishing life so she makes a connection with a stranger named Sara.

The Narrator realizes that her life is not what it was. It is breaking apart piece by piece from interests, to people that she once knew, to pets. She is seeing parts of her identity move away one by one. What is particularly sad and memorable about it, is that it is not from an illness like Alzheimer’s. These actions are caused by a daughter who thinks that she knows best and infantilizes her mother. The attention only seeks to isolate her and make her feel lonely. 

The Narrator’s connection to Sara is one of mutual strangers but she thinks that it gives her the love and support that she is looking for from her daughter. This woman is delusional but her mind is so troubled and traumatized that she can’t tell the difference between what is true and what she imagines about Sara.

The irony of Sara’s appearance is a grotesque and dark comic one that seems to put a fatalistic punch line to this poor woman’s life. In being unable to truly bond with her daughter, the Narrator seeks another very unhealthy and troubling bond with someone who is also rejecting her in her own way. Rather than acknowledging that, the Narrator would rather remain in this state than admit what is painfully true. 

“The Return”-Loneliness is also the culprit in this story of a father communicating with his daughter by phone. Unlike The Narrator and her mother who live a stifling isolating experience which leaves the mother longing for a connection that makes her feel less confined and lonely, Melvin’s relationship with his daughter, Ella, is already isolated. 

Melvin projects an image of a kind and efficient worker, but he is starting to slow down. His work is less noticeable and he is distracted. He slowly loses confidence and eventually his placement at work. As long as he had a role at the office, he was known but as it diminishes, he is made redundant, faceless, someone easily discarded. The job has deprived him of his humanity and left him alone and disenchanted with the outside world.

His home life is equally isolated. His wife is dead and he is separated from his daughter by distance. They only communicate by phone which Melvin hates. The results are that Melvin is desensitized and disconnected from the life around him. He is physically cut off from others, so mentally is as well.

He becomes involved with an experiment involving rats. This experiment is foreshadowed when he tells a disturbed Ella a story about rats committing violent actions out of love and respect. In his loneliness, he is personifying human interaction with animals. The things that he wants: love, respect, understanding, empathy are things that he believes that he sees in rodents. This isolation, unmet longing, and the desperate need to have those longings met cause him to go to extreme means to get them. Those means present a horrible lasting impression on Ella and the Reader.

“What Lingers”-This story personalizes one of the most historic tragedies by giving us two characters who experienced it and share an intuitive connection because of it. 

At first we aren’t told where Alex and Katya  are and what disaster has befallen them. There are hints with words like “radiation,” and references to the odd sky color and opening valves. The clues start piling up until proper names like “Pripyat” and “Three Mile Island” enter. Then it becomes more apparent what is going on and what the characters are experiencing. It’s a universal thing. No matter what the tragedy is, people who are associated with such an event will always feel connected to it.

Besides giving clues for the Reader to guess where they are, this approach demonstrates the humanity that such tragedies bring. It doesn’t matter when or where they are, but those who have been through them will share a bond of mutual survivors. It creates links of kinship that go beyond friends and family. 

Alex and Katya’s link is explored in an intuitive and possibly psychic manner. They are brought together by this tragedy and their relationship. Even though they are in another place, they recognize each other as someone who understands and has been through the ordeal. They reach beyond that memory and are able to connect on a more personal level. 

“Valley of the Horse”-This story presents an ominous energy found in nature and how it parallels grief. Zak is haunted by his various interactions with a judge and a dying horse on his way to and from work. 

Judge Ivy and the horse seem to be cut off from the edge of the world. Zak pities the horse who is clearly suffering and Ivy who can do nothing but watch her die. Their interactions run the gamut between casual, revulsion, indifferent, sympathy, anger, depression, defiance, and ultimately acceptance. Ivy is a man who wants to believe that he is doing his best for his horse and wants to be with her during his painful experience. He doesn’t want to hasten it, but suffer through it with her.

Zak is drawn to this man because he recently suffered the loss of his partner, April. Even though he is with someone else, his thoughts of April never diminished. Ivy and the horse are constant reminders of the person that he lost and the guilt that he felt for things that he did and didn’t do with April. In some ways, Zak is reliving his own experiences including the life that he didn’t have with her. Zak and Ivy are parallels in loss and the emotions that are associated with it.

One of the most telling moments is when Zak rages at Ivy and a crowd gathered around the horse. Since Ivy is a judge, Zak is calling him out on his treatment of the horse and how he can let her suffer. It’s a bit heavy handed, but he is also comparing Ivy to God, who is often described as a judge on why April died as well. He wants to know why she died and why Zak didn’t recognize the signs to help her until it was too late. He wants to know why he, like Ivy, just watched her suffer instead of helping her. 

“Exorcism”-The title suggests one thing but the text of this story tells something else. At first it appears that Mrs. Mitchell is the titular exorcist and she is there to extract a demon from Tony Reyes, a young man. That is not what happens. 

What we are given instead is a character study of a young boy through the perspectives of his father and his English teacher. They both share memories of Tony as they knew him. Mrs. Mitchell saw a bright, polite student who answered questions and had a deep understanding of literature. His father saw his son who was a happy jokester but became troubled, quiet, and withdrawn as though he were possessed. 

Senor Reyes’ descriptions of Tony’s subsequent behavior are eerie as it details a teenager who might be losing his grip with reality and sanity. He is troubled by voices and destructive thoughts. It’s a traumatic nightmare told from the point of view of an anguished parent wanting to take the pain away from his child but who is helpless with not knowing what it was.

It’s left purposely ambiguous whether or not Tony was possessed, showing signs of schizophrenia or depression, or was just simply acting out as a troubled teen. All that is known is that he is gone, was not the same person that he was before, and has left behind two authority figures who bonded with him but could not understand what he was going through. They had a limited frame of reference based on their own associations and experiences and were unable to communicate with Tony or find helpful solutions that may have saved him. Instead, they are left wondering why. 

“At Taft Point”-This story is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in that it demonstrates the futility of blind obedience and never questioning what one knows isn’t right.

A group of tourists visit Taft Point. At first it seems like a pleasant visit to nature. It’s beautiful and imposing. There is a deep spiritual connection as the visitors feel God’s presence in the view around them. It's almost a meditative but disconcerting experience. 

There are hints that not is as it seems within the group. The women are dressed alike with long skirts and braids. There are a lot of children. They speak often of God and their leader gives a speech filled with metaphor and generalities but no specifics about the group or their motives. It’s not outright scary but it may put the Reader at a distinct unease that there is something that is off about these people. 

As the characters talk to each other, their reason for being there and motivation becomes clear. It is a terrifying experience not just because of what is being done but the willingness of the people to do it. There is a slight bait and switch as one of the group tries to disobey and one expects that those closest to them would rally to their side. Instead, they ally with the rest of the group, not the outsider leaving them to their fate as a final decision is made. These people are so driven by their leader’s view that they lost their free will and are willing to follow him to commit atrocities. 

This blind obedience is so prevalent in society today whether it’s through religion, politics, nationalism, philosophy, and any group that provides thought and identity. If one is so drawn to the group, they will surrender everything: friends, families, beliefs, faith, laws, work, country, relationship, money, intelligence, standards, morals, ethics, common sense, and finally their own lives just to be a part of it. The less they question and research only the sources that they are told to, the more likely they will surrender everything to someone who will profit off of them and end their lives rather than be seen as anything less than a deity. 

“Rabbit in the Hat”-One thing that this anthology has is an ongoing theme of people using their art to make their voices heard. This is particularly scene in this story of Bill Morris, who has worked in a museum for over 40 years and has shown artistic talent himself. His closest friends and colleagues attend an exhibition of his work. 

Many of the people use their frames of reference on how they see Morris: as a quiet unassuming single man that had been just there in their lives, faded into the background. They didn’t know him. They only knew what they saw in him. His real self is explained through his art.

Morris’ art covers three rooms. The first two are more ordinary, landscapes, still life. They represent the exterior. A man who quietly observed everything around them and was able to capture it. The words that no one heard, the man that no one saw showed them the outside world that he saw.

The third room explores a darker more subterranean consciousness inside Morris, one that is honest, naked, violent, sexy, and more real than what they had previously known. They are forced to confront their own secrets, inner lives, thoughts, and insecurities and lay them bare. It is a joke, maybe, but it is also a chance for Morris and the other characters to face their inner truths and authentic selves. 

“Sound Waves”-Another ongoing theme in this anthology is whether forms of communication brings us together or drives us apart. This one explores the power of changing technology as seen through radio. A spooky night at a radio program. DJ Charlie Tainter receives a mysterious phone call that causes his colleagues to question the man and where he comes from.

The entire setting is in the radio station during the program so it’s  a compact and limiting environment. Charlie and his co-workers can only go by the voice on the radio, the Internet, and Charlie himself to piece together what they are given. Charlie says one thing. The caller says another. The Internet says yet another. The accounts don’t tell a complete story instead it’s all accusation, denial, and information that is later discredited. It’s hard to tell what the truth really is and if the characters don’t know, the Reader certainly doesn’t. We are left to our own conclusions.

 It seems that this device, radio, like other technological marvels is created to be a source of communication. Unfortunately, it can only communicate so much. Fittingly, another form of communication is used, the Internet. Both can create and distort sound and images. Both can tell you what’s considered good or bad, right or wrong and shape views. They provide information as it is given not necessarily what is true but what people want to believe. Because of that, we don’t know what to believe.

A possibility is presented in the final pages, one that transcends space and time and relies more on imagination than information. It calls for the characters and Readers to think beyond what is laid out in front of them and look for possibilities that are beyond what they are told. Words, news, voices, information can be altered and subjected to reinterpretation. When faced with that information, a person should weigh their own options and look inward for what they perceive and believe. 

Scars of The Heart by Bob Van Laerhoven; Around the World Trip Into Loss, Grief, Love, and Terror

 Scars of The Heart: Short Stories by Bob Van Laerhoven; Around the World Trip Into Loss, Grief, Love, and Terror

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Bob Van Laerhoven knows how to take an around the world trip through different countries right into the dark and damaged hearts and minds of the people who live within those countries. Alejandro’s Lie focused on the aftermath of a dictator’s reign in a fictional Latin American country and the effect on its people, particularly a man who was just released from prison and has PTSD. 

His follow up, Shadow of the Mole is a dual narrative set in WWI France involving a psychiatrist's obsession with an amnesiac patient and the patient’s manuscript which might be a novel or his memories of being cursed by a Romany couple. 

With his anthology, Scars of the Heart: Short Stories, Van Laerhoven does what he does best: peer into the tormented minds and heavy hearts of people in different interesting locations. It is less an around the world trip than it is an “around the human psyche” trip.

The best stories in this anthology are: 

“The Abomination”- In Syria, the narrator is part of a terrorist cell called the Shabah. As he languishes in a Doctors Without Borders facility with an amputated arm, he thinks about his life and what he did to get to that point. 

The Narrator is written to be a truly delusional and angry man. He sees himself as a wrestler or a superhero that he calls The Abomination. His fantasies about fictional heroes and villains, toxic masculine attitude, and confidence in his virility fill his mind with delusions. 

While in the hospital, he is faced with the reality of his actions. It is a reality of broken and injured people, dead bodies, friends and family members violently taken away from their loved ones, a country torn apart by war and hatred, and his own damaged body. His missing arm is a testament to the lives that he took.

Unfortunately, reality comes too late for The Narrator. His violent fantasies are all that he lives for and even when someone reaches out in kindness and compassion, all he knows is rage. All he can feel is anger and toxic pride. The only way that he can act is to commit destruction towards others and ultimately himself.

“Scars of the Heart”- In Belgium, a photojournalist is captivated by Jean-Claude, an octogenarian who tells his life story of being a soldier in Algiers. Jean-Claude recalls his colleague Bisserund who participated in a mission that ended in betrayal. 

Most of the story is a character study of Jean-Claude and his memories of Bisserund. He recalls details about his appearance, personality, and their experiences. It shows that in stressful times, particularly war, friendships develop. Sometimes the people that we encountered during those times are more vivid to us than our own family members. 

The twist in the end offers some interesting reinterpretations of the narrative, particularly Jean-Claude’s voice. It forces the Reader to reflect on what we were told about Jean-Claude and Bisserund. How much of it was real and how much did Jean-Claude make up? How much were his actual memories or how he wanted those memories to be? What about his confession? Why did he feel the need to tell the Photojournalist? Was there a connection between him and Bisserund like Jean-Claude hinted? Were guilt, remorse, illness, or fear of getting caught the reasons behind his end? 

In the end, we are given so much but at the same time not enough. This leaves us to investigate Jean-Claude’s story in our own minds and make our own interpretations about what we were told and what was revealed.

“The Bogeyman and Regina The Street Wench”-In Liberia, a reporter nicknamed the Bogeyman is covering the war torn city of Monrovia. He takes shelter with a nun, Sister Sponza, who is trying to escape with the children in her care. One of them is Regina, a girl who has lost her leg and seems to see right through the Bogeyman.

This story shows how stressful times can make strange friendships. The Bogeyman, Regina, and Sister Sponza are thrown together during violent circumstances. They come to depend on one another to survive. A cynical reporter, a selfless nun, and a former child soldier would have very little need to be together, but now here they are. 

This is also a time of sacrifice and asking questions of oneself and others. Some people rise to the occasion while others do not. Sister Sponza asks a question of The Bogeyman which leaves him to question his motives, the corners that he cut in the past, his earlier plagiarism, and his own egocentric desires to make something of himself. 

The Bogeyman has to examine himself to see whether he has the courage and fortitude to do what Sister Sponza asks or whether this will be the latest in his catalog of disappointments.  

“Abducted and Raped by Aliens”-In New York, failed author, Penman reflects on his ongoing rivalry with Stanislas Nakowski, a fellow writer who has an active sex life and writes about UFOs and alien abductions.

This story has one of the most memorable narrative voices with Penman’s third person point of view. His strange speech patterns like repeating the phrase “looky-looky” or non sequiturs like “this wet and slimy cold invading my nostrils is the swamp-stench of animal sex, eternal sex, war sex” portray him as someone who potentially shows signs of ADHD, or some neurological disorder. 

Penman's thought process could be someone who has difficulties processing information either from birth or trauma. It is also worth noting that he is addicted to cocaine and that may play into his mindset. His thoughts could just as easily be reflective of a mind that is slowly losing connections to reality.  

Stanislas himself is a memorable foil to Penman’s narration. He not only believes and writes about UFOs but he seems obsessed with them, almost aroused by them. A witness's story of an abduction is often interrupted by Stanislas’ lewd commentary and his interest in the witness’ sex life. 

He also had prior history of sexual assault in Kosovo when he and Penman’s paths crossed before. He is fueled by his sexual experiences and many of them either had violence during or afterwards. Stanislas equates sex, violence, and aliens in some crazed fantasy life.

With Penman and Stanislas we are experiencing two men whose minds are traumatized and fractured from earlier events. Both are completely unstable, unhealthy, and are bound to lives of further alienation, frustrations, violence, rage, and death.

“Lilies of The Valley”-In a WWII concentration camp, a Romany girl cares for her brother and ensures their survival by having sex with the guards. 

The Narrator is a resourceful young woman who is brought down to the most basic survival instincts and she knows it too. She was once a talented dancer and her brother an accomplished violinist but none of that matters now in the camps. 

She only uses her talents to be granted favors such as extra food or to live another day. Her morality and self-respect have long ago disappeared and now she is numb and unfeeling to what the guards do to her. The Nazis took everything that was precious to her leaving a broken shell.

Just when the Narrator thinks that she is devoid of all feelings beyond living for the next day, she is given a final tragedy, one that fills her heart and mind with rage. She uses her beauty and mind to engage in a one on one battle against one of the guards and others.

The Narrator becomes a blade of revenge and uses it against those who hurt her. As though she were the human embodiment of karma, she commits an act of vengeance that is equal to the cruelty that was inflicted upon her. 

“The Left-Handed Path of Tantra”-In 1970’s Antwerp, Johnny Di Machio had plenty of nightmares, particularly about a time when he was sexually assaulted as a boy. 

Johnny tries to live a normal life in Antwerp selling books and dating women, but he is completely haunted by these nightmares. His past eats away at him making him unable to function in the present. He has tried many means to overcome his trauma: sex, drugs, travel, meditation, seeking advice from psychologists and gurus. 

Johnny comes close to becoming romantically involved but he freezes upon intimacy. The nightmares and memories won’t leave. Johnny is an adult whose mind is frozen inside his bitter abused violent childhood. 

When Johnny is finally confronted with his memories, he has to evaluate his character: what happened, what he did, what he didn’t do, who was the perpetrator, and who was the real victim in the past. He is confronted with the truth and only when he has the truth can he actually begin to come to terms with himself and finally heal.

New Book Alert: 50 States: A Collection of Short Stories by Richard R. Becker; The Entire United States Captured in One Anthology

 

New Book Alert: 50 States: A Collection of Short Stories by Richard R. Becker; The Entire United States Captured in One Anthology

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Every once in a while in social media groups or in articles, the question comes up: What book do you think best describes or exemplifies your entire country?

For nonfiction, my answer is easy: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, an absorbing, provocative, and sometimes critical look at American history seen through the eyes of those who lived it. Many people whose voices had been silent in traditional accounts and were often marginalized: Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, abolitionists, women, Mexican Americans,  laborers, antiwar activists, civil rights workers, feminists, and many other voices. They showed the struggles, the good and often the bad that this country lived through.

For fiction however, that answer is a lot harder. I can think of authors that represent their specific state. For example: Harper Lee for Alabama, John Steinbeck for California, Ernest Hemingway for Florida, L. Frank Baum for Kansas, Anne Rice for Louisiana, Stephen King for Maine, Mark Twain for Missouri, F. Scott Fitzgerald for New York, Toni Morrison for Ohio and so on. But to find one specific author to tell the entire United States in Fiction is one difficult task. How do you capture every state, every setting, every character and make them unique while still making them a part of the large tapestry of the United States? For fiction authors, that may not be easy and even impossible. Until now. 

Richard R. Becker took a very ambitious project writing fifty stories set in each state and revealing that state's individual character but making the stories a part of a whole anthology, just like each state is a part of the whole country. He accomplished this project rather well.

His stories reflect various characters going through various conflicts like divorce, death, unemployment, bad marriages, love, family struggles, poverty, violence, illness and many others. Each story is a fascinating character study of these diverse individuals. Becker also crosses genres playing with different conventions like romance, humor, drama, thriller, mystery, horror, and even a few contemporary fantasies to tell these distinct voices.

The best stories are:

"Broken People Idaho 2003"

This opening story sets the tone and an ongoing theme for the entire anthology: characters in an emotional crossroads or facing certain struggles and how they deal with those struggles. 

Jonathan Cole has been grieving for the death of his son, whom he accidentally ran over with a carbine harvester. His marriage has also ended. A woman coming to his farm to inform him of a traffic accident near his property is the last thing that he needs.

The woman's comment that there are broken people everywhere, injured by the accident, resonates throughout this story (and in many ways throughout the entire book).

Everyone is broken in some ways. Sometimes their injuries are more apparent, with bruises and injuries. Sometimes you can't always see the breaks because of emotional trauma, but you know that they are there. With that many broken people around, the best that anyone can do is to face them and see if you can help even in the smallest capacity.

"The Best Life Arkansas 2019"

This story reflects how modern technology allows us to communicate with people that we used to, restore old friendships, rekindle old love affairs, network opportunities, and catch up on old times. However, in our drive to communicate sometimes we miss the emotions that are connected within.

That is what happens with Mason. He used Facebook to look up old flames. Now he is interested in pursuing an affair with Carol, someone with whom he had a casual acquaintance with outside the Internet but on social media is engaging in a very passionate sexual affair.

Just as heated as the romance begins, it ends just as quickly. Carol cites reasons that Mason knows are wrong based on research. While ruminating on the difference between Carol's words and the information that he learned about her, he thinks that Carol is a different person.

What this story shows is how we never really know the people with whom we make contact, especially on social media. On social media, the user has complete control over their own image: how they look, what they say, and what they can post (provided that they follow the outlet's TOS of course). They can say a terrible vacation was wonderful with just a few photographs. They can show a photograph retouched with glamor and insist that they always look like that. They can also share stories about a deceased and missed friend or relative in the present tense keeping them alive, long after they are gone.

In this decision to keep the online fantasy alive, they lose the real person. That's the emotional connection that they really need.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamonds Michigan 1975"

This story has a definite eerie horror sensibility throughout the pages. 

The Narrator and his friends, David and  Yuri, visit the haunted house that was once inhabited by the Diamond Family, a family that came to a tragic violent end. The friends decide to perform an exorcism. Let's just say that things don't turn out well.

The creepy atmosphere is retained throughout the story. The Diamond Family house story is reminiscent of many real life haunted houses, the places where urban legends get bigger with each telling and kids dared their friends to go inside.

Later years, those houses became the subjects of unexplained phenomena documentaries, ghost walking tours, or haunted themed attractions. Every city and town has at least one. (St. Louis has the Lemp Brewery and House. Even closer to my home are the Morse Mill Hotel and various sites in nearby Blackwell, Missouri.)

However, this may not necessarily be a story of supernatural horror. This may actually be a story about a kid losing his grip on sanity and all his friends can do is hopelessly watch. As Yuri gets more involved with the exorcism, his personality becomes more unhinged and erratic. It's clear that this kid has bigger problems than an interest in ghosts.

One of the clues that shows Yuri is suffering from mental illness is the constant allusions to the rock group Pink Floyd, specifically their songs, "Shine On You, Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here." Those songs were composed as tributes to Floyd founding member, Syd Barrett, who had various psychological problems, possibly schizophrenia, and was eventually removed from the band. 

Like Barrett, Yuri may be in danger of withdrawing more and more from his friends into his own private and frightening world.

"Private Conversations Colorado 2020"

Similar to "Shine on You, Crazy Diamonds", this story also is very open about the subject of mental illness. However unlike its predecessor, "Private Conversations" does not carry any sense of supernatural horror or dark fantasy. It is a very real and very frightening short story of a man going through his day listening to the voices in his head.

The reality is what makes this story terrifying. The voices constantly taunt the Narrator feeding off his fears, insecurities, and darker urges. It's a constant fight as he struggles to silence them but ultimately gives in.

As with most stories that use the point of view of a mentally ill person, the trick is making them seem to be the normal one and everyone else is crazy. To him the voices are telling him to do something that is perfectly natural or reveal what to him is the truth. Sometimes, he steps back and disagrees, but the more they talk the more he wearily surrenders. He can no longer fight because they make sense to him.

"A Beautiful Day Pennsylvania 1990"

Sometimes the short stories reflect that state by referring to settings or events. Other times, they refer to important people that came from that state. "A Beautiful Day" does this by shouting out to Pennsylvania's native son, Mr. Fred Rogers.

In fact Mr. Roger's Neighborhood isn't the only children's show to get referenced in this story. There are also allusions to Sesame Street and The Electric Company. The references to children's shows, particularly Neighborhood, give a dramatic irony as the protagonist, Ellen, is patiently awaiting and accepting her impending death. 

Ellen is a woman who is ready to go. She already divided her possessions and made her arrangements. When she starts feeling the symptoms of a heart attack, she has to reassure the paramedic that she'll be fine. 

Her positive and hopeful outlook gives her a unique perspective. To everyone else, it's a loss or a race to save her life. To her, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood when she can recognize the kindness from others before she leaves this world.

"The Qallupilluk Alaska 1982"

Sometimes the state's setting is a virtue for the story. The Alaskan setting brings "The Qallupilluk" to life. The Reader gives an audible shiver at the description of frozen lakes and the creaking boats. It's no wonder fishers have to be hearty to eke out a living this way.

The setting also helps shape the characters. Timothy ran away to Alaska to become a salmon trawler. His companion, Kallik, suspects that he's running away from other things. He tells him a legend that is mostly a metaphor for Timothy's problems.

Timothy's character shows someone who is drawn to a so-called "simple life" that doesn't really exist. They want to run to this life that they think is different from theirs when all they are doing is running away.

"The Chain Iowa 2016"

"The Chain" is a fascinating character study of a housewife spending her whole life being accommodating until one day she decides not to be.

In some ways, it reminds me of Susan Glaspell's one act play "Trifles" in which two women investigate the house of a former friend and realized that her docility and passive nature hid an abusive marriage and a murderous desire to get out of it.

In "The Chain" a detective interviews Addie, a housewife, over the death of a young man who assaulted her daughter. Addie tells him of her childhood in which she never argued, always gave things to her younger siblings, and never lost her temper. This passive nature got her through an abusive childhood and a sometimes troubled marriage.

Addie is the type who lived a life of emotional avoidance, never expressing any outward negative emotions. She realizes the folly of living such a life when her daughter inherited those traits. The young woman gets raped and puts all the blame on herself. Addie decides to put the matter into her own hands.

"The Chain" shows how the emotions that Addie kept bottled up ended up being a detriment. She avoided her own emotions until they could no longer hide. In finally acting on her anger, Addie breaks that chain of passivity that accepted and never spoke out against. She finally broke the chains that trapped her and her daughter. They have been released.

"Leftovers Wyoming 2020"

This story shows a similar situation in "The Chain" of a woman facing an abusive past and how she deals with it in the present. Unlike Addie, Rachel isn't passive. She has worked at her family's ranch since the death of her parents during 9/11. Now that her grandfather has died, she has come to terms with her conflicted feelings for him.

Rachel can't find it in her to mourn for him. When she was 13, her grandfather molested her. Even when she told her Grandmother, the older woman dismissed it saying that it happened only one time. However, Rachel cattily explains "Maybe, I remember the one day so I don't remember all the days like that day." The molestation occurred not once but several times and Grandma kept making excuses like "the wars affected him."

 Rachel, finding no support from her grandmother and buried anger towards her grandfather, withdraws further into herself. Now she can't find anything resembling grief or even relief that he's gone. 

This story presents a sad reality. While the common wisdom is to never speak ill of the dead, sometimes you have to. Hiding behind the veneer of respectability only lets them get away with what they shouldn't. The living who suffered by their actions are left traumatized and may recover by revealing the truth and trying to live their lives without them.

"Vertigo New Mexico 1955"

Some of these stories aren't very long. They are flash fiction, only a few sentences. Those sentences are meant to capture a mood very quickly. Of those flash fiction stories, "Vertigo" is the best one.

A man is standing on a ledge ready to jump. That's it. We don't know who he is, what caused his despondency, or who he is leaving behind if anyone. We only get a moment in this poor man's life. 

In a way, this story reflects the mindset of one who is suicidal. Sometimes that thought only takes a moment. They are standing on that ledge no longer thinking of the reasons not to. Those reasons are not as important as the pain that they hope will end. The ledge almost welcomes them as they take that final plunge.

"The Domino Missouri 1962"

Of course I have to choose my home state's story. Not that it portrays it in a good light. But it is an important light that should be discussed and acknowledged so that it can never happen again.

After a protest, store owner Nehemiah Benayoun warns the family of his employee, Duane Booker, that the sheriff is coming to evict the entire shanty town, using the protest as an excuse to do so.

When a group of horsemen ride up and violently attack the Bookers and the people around them, it's clear that they have more than "keeping the peace" in mind. They are using the protest as a means to justify their racist hatred of an African American family and their Jewish friend. 

One of the sons Elijah observes, "(The riders) are not even hiding their faces." The riders see no reason to disguise their hatred behind hoods. It's right out in the open. The Bookers and Nehemiah see the prejudice that fuels these riders to attack an African American family just for living is the same prejudice that put a number tattoo on Nehemiah's arm and forced him to leave his own country.

"The Interview New York 2017"

Job interviews can be stressful. It's a lot of work to research the business, learn how to speak properly and ask the right questions, and make sure their movements don't betray their nervousness. It's also stressful for the one giving the interview to ask the same questions and read each potential's face and body language, then check references to see if they are a good fit. Sometimes a potential employee could make it by that much and just miss it without ever really knowing the reason why.

Sometimes interviewers have clever, more unique ways of gauging an interviewee's real personality. That is what happens when William is being interviewed by Cynthia Rothman of the law firm, Martin & Morgan. The interview is set during lunch at a West Village gastropub. Relax, Cynthia says, it doesn't matter what he orders or says to the servers. All that matters is how he answers questions. 

What doesn't occur to William is that he is being monitored and his very behavior in social situations is what is being observed.

William's behavior shows that when being interviewed, a person is on from the moment that they arrive. William is able to be himself and he realizes what himself is: a temperamental jerk. For those who are in the service industry, it's no doubt a cathartic experience to read about such an entitled fool getting dressed down by the representative from his first choice law firm.

"The Engagement New Jersey 1981"

Like I said some of these stories contain a bit of contemporary fantasy. This is one of them.

The Narrator is ready to propose to his girlfriend, Katie. He is as nervous and excited as he could be. He made reservations at a nice restaurant and he has the ring. He is ready.

Two days before the upcoming proposal, The Narrator goes to visit a fortune teller. Using a deck of Tarot cards, the fortune teller reveals some very bad news. This bad news is confirmed by Katie and causes them to doubt their future.

While subtle, the images on the cards reflect the Narrator's outlook especially after Katie tells him her news. He realizes that their future is preordained and nothing can change that. He knows that whatever their future holds, he is ready to hold onto whatever happiness there is no matter how brief that it might be.

"Papa Ghede Louisiana 2014"

This is another contemporary fantasy and where else would it be set but in Scare Central, the place where vampires, ghosts, and voodoo are about as present as tourists during Mardi Gras. Where else but Louisiana.

A woman seeks to rid herself of her abusive husband by any means necessary. Those means include voodoo. As she continues to cast the spell, her husband taunts her saying it doesn't work. He fails to account that she has one final trick to play.

The supernatural themes that are so prominent in Louisiana are in full display in this story. While voodoo is often portrayed in movies as something sinister and scary, in Louisiana there's a strong community involvement in the practice. 

Many voodoo practitioners help people get through difficult times in their lives, like giving them the ability to stand up to domestic abuse. 

That's what's in play here. The woman is getting assistance from her voodoo community to end her problem. 

"As It Seems Kansas 1971"

Again this story pays tribute to a famous local. I'll give you a hint. There's a tornado and a black Cairn terrier by the name of Toto.

Unfortunately, this protagonist, Rose (not Dorothy) is hardly in a magical land over the rainbow. Instead she is inside a storm shelter with her parents and a family that got stuck on the road during the storm. Unfortunately, the close confines get more and more constricting as the father of the visiting family, Walter Loman, becomes more and more unhinged.

 Loman becomes irritated with Toto's barking and Sally's watering eyes (she's allergic to dogs), and the claustrophobia. The final straw occurs when Percy, an African American friend of Rose's family, seeks shelter from the storm. Walter pulls out a gun, his paranoia in full display.

It doesn't take long for Rose to realize that there is more than one storm going on and the one in front of her is far worse than the one outside. At least that storm outside will pass. Buildings can be repaired. A tornado can fade into a story. 

The storm of a person's hatred and fear, especially when they do violent things as a result, can never be repaired. That kind of storm will never end.

"A Hole in the Wall Hawaii 2020"

Naturally, a story set in 2020 would tackle Covid. This story shows how friendship and relationships evolve during a time when social contact is severely limited.

Kalena and Kekoa, a young girl and boy, meet each other during the early days of the pandemic. Despite them being masked and having to maintain social distance, they hang out together, bond, and even start to fall in love. All of this without seeing each other's faces.

This story shows that even in some of the most stressful times, people will find ways to adjust and change their lives around. It also shows that human contact can still be found and is definitely worth trying for.

"Where's There's Smoke Oregon 2019"

Similar to "As It Seems" this story uses a natural disaster as a metaphor for human mistrust and hatred.

Jeremy and his family are evacuating their home during a large brushfire. On their way to safety, they nearly get into an accident with a car that's headed in the direction of their house. Why are they headed for their house during an evacuation and with smoke and flames visible on the horizon no less? Jeremy doesn't know but he has some idea and a gun in his hand.

The descriptions of the fire are harrowing as is the panic in evacuating such a disaster. The argument that Jeremy has with his wife Stephanie about bringing his grandfather's flute is very real. ("He carved it by hand during the war.") It's typical of people whose lives are about to be destroyed and the grief when losing things that are important to them. Yes they are just "things," but they are also history and are connected to the people who had them.

The other thing this story shows is the metaphor between a natural and human disaster. Jeremy goes to attack these people who he suspects are up to no good. They are barely able to give an explanation before he uses his gun. He gives into his rage and suspicions and destroys lives just as quickly as the fire destroys the life around it. The fires of nature can be quenched but sometimes the fires of human hatred are not so easy to put out.

"All Your Joys Massachusetts 2019"

 Massachusetts is known for the Salem Witch Trials among other things. So of course the story covers that infamous time and the town's transformation into half tourist trap and half welcome to modern witches. However, with the transition of accepting them, there is still the paranoiac fear of witches doing harm.

Kam certainly believes this. He, his mother and sister moved to Salem after his father walked out on them. He believes that his neighbor is a witch. She has an evil eye decoration on her door and says that she is watching him. However, she also implies that she has a video camera and knows that he tried to break into her house before. Is she watching him electronically or by other more supernatural means? Is she putting a curse on him?

Kam is a kid filled with plenty of angst. He hates his father for leaving them for a younger woman. He hates the move to this strange new place where people sell items like T Shirts that say "I got stoned at Salem." His mother is constantly angry with him. She takes much of her rage out on him such as when his pit bull, Jambar accidentally bites his sister. 

Kam is sitting on a keg and ready to light it. Like many people who are angry, for example his own mother, Kam needs to find a way to articulate his rage. An easy target to take his anger out on. The easiest target of course is the source of his fear, the witch next door. We are not only looking at an angst ridden teen prepared to enter a life of crime. We are not only looking at someone with Wiccaphobia (an intense fear of witches.) We are looking at the mind of a potential future witch hunter. Someone filled with rage and fear and justifies his attacks on someone innocent by believing that they are the ones who are guilty. Not himself.

"Four Fathers Georgia 1968"

One thing that Becker pulls off expertly are these moments between characters. Not much happens in the stories but the conversations reveal much about their character.

Rosalee travels to Macon, Georgia to visit her estranged father. He tells her about his life as a war veteran, his relationship with her mother, and his complicated family life. He does this not to excuse his absence in her life but to explain where he came from so she can have some knowledge of her father and learn where she came from.

The conversation is moving. Rosalee's father is a wonderful storyteller filling his life with details of heroism and regret. He lived an interesting life but missed out on a family. The only thing that he can give his daughter are stories and memories and the hope that she will remember him that way.

"The Samaritan Indiana 2016"

This story reflects a fear that many women have to go through, being sexually assaulted.

Janice nearly avoids being assaulted by a stranger. When the man pursues her, she is helped by a man named Eric. Unfortunately, Janice finds herself in an even worse situation.

At first, Janice is caught in a very obvious situation. The first man is almost a stereotype in how he pursues her. He is the type of person that someone would point to and say it's her fault for catching his attention, so it's her fault that she would be attacked.

The Erics are a lot harder to spot and that makes them more dangerous. They pretend to be friendly and helpful. They avoid those warning signs because they know how to. They have heard all the words and know to behave contrary to them. They can bypass suspicion

 Then believe that the women owe them something for their intervention.

They may even be the first to blame, pointing the finger at what the victim did to "entice" their attacker, while they are guilty of committing the action themselves.

Their behavior makes it harder to separate friend from foe, enemy from hero, attacker from rescuer. 

"Into the Bardo Rhode Island 2017"

This is another story where the setting of the state just grabs the Reader and pulls them in. In this case literally.

Logan is a young man who may be the only survivor in a boating accident. Officer Hector Almada tries to question the young man who is in shock and denial for what happened and is very worried about his uncle, cousin, and friend who are still unaccounted for.

The rough seas come to life as does the little boat rocking back and forth trying to stay afloat. The crew's struggles to steer to safety are suspenseful. It's a very tense situation in which a relaxing peaceful sea voyage can turn into a nightmare and fight to stay alive.

Logan is also well written. He wants to believe the others are still alive. He doesn't want to think that his uncle did anything wrong. He grows more hysterical and desperate, wanting to hold onto what he knows can't be true. He is trying to come to terms with his survival and his loss.

"The Catch Texas 1957"

It would make more sense for a story about the circus to be set in Florida. Sarasota is the winter home of Ringling Bros., Barnum, and Bailey Circus. Gibsonton was where many of the entertainers lived, including those with physical abnormalities and who worked in the sideshows.

Oh well, it's set in Texas. But it's still a good story that captures the weird strangeness and childlike wonder that the circus once possessed and how it often drew people in who wanted to "run away and join the circus."

Jimmy is a young boy who is so enchanted by his visit to the circus, Die Wunder Der Welt (The Wonders of the World). He wants to do anything,such as feeding the animals. The entertainers such as Ivan the Giant, Ingrid the Bareback Rider, and others mock him but are generous to show him around and give him a chance. As Jimmy explores this strange intoxicating world, he sees some bizarre things that also draw him inside.

Becker describes the nostalgia of the old circus very well. Probably like some of the Readers of this anthology, I'm not old enough to remember when the majority of circuses travelled by train and entertained in tents. I've been to five circuses in my 45 years and they have all been in convention centers. So this story captures a time that is mostly accessed through film, television, books, and memories of members of the Boomer, Greatest, and Silent generations. It's almost magical and enchanting in how it captures the circus and its colorful inhabitants. Who wouldn't want to join?

There's also a subtext of lost innocence that a popular culture touchstone is coming to an end. It's not a coincidence that the story is set in 1957. Jimmy even remarks about it. Television is the new medium. People don't know why they should go to see an entertainment when they could see it at home. Of course, this outlook continues.

 It subtly pokes holes in the belief that this is a new attitude with people addicted to social media and their handheld devices. It's clear that this has been an ongoing thing and the people who point their fingers at what kids are missing out on conveniently forget that they did a lot of watching and a lot of missing out on life. as well.

"All The Wild Horses North Dakota 2019"

Some stories have a deep connection to nature and this one definitely has the strongest. It reveals a beautiful landscape and wild horses being rounded up. It's a land in which resources are being drained and destroyed along with the animals and people that live within it.

One of the people trying to save the Nokota wild horses is Andrea "Andy" Canton. Even though she is a teenager she already has a reputation of taking the horses to reservation land far from the jurisdiction of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management, not well…someone else). Despite verbal warning and threats, she continues to act.

Andy is a character who stands for her ideals with a lot of strength and compassion for the horses in her care. She gets into a conversation with a man who despite being Native American made a choice to compromise and live with the white establishment. He did it for survival and to gain money. He made a choice.

Andy hears his story and understands and sees his point, conceding that yes it is a changing world. He could speak for himself and so could she. They could make choices on what to do with their lives. The horses never could beyond remaining wild or conceded to domesticity. No one could speak and fight for them. Andy makes the choice to continue fighting for them. 

"Top Rung South Carolina 2013"

This story is a brilliant character study with a twist ending that would make Rod Serling proud.

Kayla goes out for a morning jog. While she runs, her mind wanders to the troubles in her life. She recently moved to a new suburban home and has a decent job as a pharmaceutical lab technician. However, she wants respect for her mind and not to be overlooked because of her body. She is surrounded by workplace sexism and is aware that body objectification is all around her.

She has seen such objectification ruin her sister, Naomi. She is now pregnant and has been abandoned by her boyfriend. Her parents are looking after Naomi and Kayla knows that they will end up doing the lion's share of the work. As for Kayla, well she loves her sister but she has her own issues to deal with.

Kayla is one of those "good kids all grown up." She made the choices in which everyone approved: went to college, got a good job, and bought a house. On the one hand, she is incredibly unsympathetic by diminishing her sister's problems. However, she is also understandable as someone who believes that they paid their dues and should be happy but somehow aren't. She is wondering about her life when she still has to struggle to be accepted. Is this all there is?

All of these questions come to a screeching halt. I won't say more except it involves a Nissan Sentra, some creepy dogs, and an even creepier guy named Sharren. It will interest people who can read into the real meaning and realize what is actually going on. This ending comes out of nowhere but is kind of the point. Some things change and some questions about respect, family, and self actualization are thrown away without being answered. 

"The Right Choice Nebraska 2010"

I'm always open to any story set primarily in a bookstore where the characters talk about reading. Luckily, Becker gave me one. However, the discussion about books becomes even deeper when discussions about fantasy and reality are raised.

Harry, his daughter Rebecca, and son Peter are in a bookstore. Cantankerous Harry reveals that he doesn't like to read books. He considers them too much of an escape from reality, so he prefers to live in the real world. He cites books where a person does something heroic. It's not that simple, he says.

Rebecca however has a more romantic disposition. She enjoys the escape that reading provides. Nurtured by her desire for fantasy, escape, and heroism says that she knows heroism in her life. Her father, for instance, once saved a kid from drowning. She sees an act of courage and self sacrifice.

Her father however reveals that the heroism isn't the end of the story. The kid that he saved later cold bloodedly murdered someone and ended up in prison. He can only see the tragic dark ending. Why escape such a horrific event when it still exists after the book is closed, he wonders? It's still there in his mind.

This story never pushes one side over the other. Instead, it shows that sometimes people have different views that can't always be compromised. Some see romance. Others see reality.

"Wheels Go Round Tennessee 1977"

I suppose it's full circle that this story covers a vehicle just like the first, "Broken People." However, the previous one dealt with a wreck and the idea that people were broken and restrained. This story explores the constant movement of traveling by bus and the freedom that such travel contains. Instead of being restrained, the riders are released.

A young boy and girl are talking at a bus stop. The girl talks about the people that she observes like she thinks that a homeless man is a Vietnam vet returning home. With the boy, she sees someone who hasn't been loved.

She's right. He's leaving a foster family that treats him like a third wheel. The girl senses that he isn't running away but towards something. Unlike her who has nowhere to go, she likes that idea and decides to go with him.

In the first story, people were broken. Their souls and bodies were laid out and unable to move. They needed to be carried away. Here, the characters are still broken on the inside. However, instead of being carried away, they decide to walk away to a new life.