Short Story Time

I slipped into my Nook this morning and read two short stories by Eudora Welty: "A Still Moment" and "Why I Live at the P.O."

Let me first say that I am not a fan of short stories. It seems that just as I get involved with the characters and the plot, the story is over. But Faulkner and Welty both are known for their stories so I am putting aside my prejudice and venturing forth.

"A Still Moment" finds Lorenzo, a real-life evangelist; Murrell, a real-life outlaw and murderer; and, a real-life studier of birds, John James Audubon, meeting at the same point in the evening along the Natchez Trace and witnessing a white heron feeding at the bank of the marsh.

One character wants to save men, one wants to kill men, and one wants to capture with his paint brush the beauty of the creatures of the wilderness. There was a lot of talk about God, saving souls, Death, solving the mystery of being, and ecstasy. Audubon, more gentle than the two other obsessed men, provides the actual violence in the story.

Maybe it was too early in the morning for such thoughts.

In "Why I Live at the P.O."  the narrator, a woman of unknown age, has a big ol' fight with her family - wayward sister, mama, uncle, and grand-daddy, and since she is the post mistress for the town of China Grove, Mississippi, packs up her possessions and goes to live among the incoming and outgoing letters and stamps and envelopes.

On reading the P.O. story, I laughed at the arguing that goes on which is based on misunderstandings as many arguments are.

That's about all I can say about the two stories. I guess tomorrow I will try Faulkner.