Carrying a Zither to Visit Friends

THE SHIRT

He took off his sweater. Then he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt. It was too late. She started laughing, and left.

THE QUESTION

He would not ask her. She would not stop reading. After weeks like that, she died and he asked someone else the question.

DEBBIE

He thought, "Debbie’s a byproduct of academic botulism." At the same time as the thought came to him a rat appeared on the far side of the field of grass where he was sitting.

THE SUCCESS STORY

She believed the success story. Unfortunately, it was someone else’s story. In the nights that followed, she failed over and over, but she recorded her failures meticulously in her journal and thereby sowed the seeds of her recovery.

FISHING

She was tired. He wanted to go fishing. She went to bed. He went fishing.

KANT, HUME

She went out with Jim on a Friday night for a hamburger. He attempted to explain to her Kant’s critical departure from Hume. She knew all about it, found him unimpressive, and dumped him – for Jerry, who told her about mud and driftwood. But eventually she dumped him too and went into seclusion in an ancient anchorhold in Yorkshire.

MARSHMALLOWS

He raked seven piles of leaves. Then it began to rain and he stopped. He made hot chocolate for himself at the old wood stove and, looking around and seeing no one, added five marshmallows.

Belief in Shadows

AT THE DRIVE-IN

She left the party early. On the way home she saw him at the drive-in. She circled around and pulled up three stalls away.

METAPHYSICS

He distrusted metaphysics. Of the more concrete side of life he exalted. Never had he been more certain of the gains of modern science than when he blew up his garage.

THE HINGE

He thought a lot about the desirability of complexity. Yet the stability and reliability of simple grains of sand appealed to him. He called a cabinet maker and ordered a pine box without a hinge.

THE SMILE

She smiled. He thought she was thinking about him. She wasn’t.

THE LIBRARIAN

Philip – a shy young man – was delighted to discover a library in his new neighbourhood. But he never went back, for the girl working at the information desk was far too pretty. He read only at home.