Originally in MURDERLAND, this ended up the title story in his collection.
A family returns home from the hospital where the father is spending
some time after falling off the roof after being shot. They are having a
rare snowstorm, and the boys begin to shovel the driveway and walk. The
women try to piece together what has happened. The man who shot the
father has been captured and was a former business partner. They are
also waiting for the return of another family member away at college.
They are worried about him out on the icy roads.
The dread in
this story is palpable: the storm, the fate of the college student,
knocks on the door, is the father involved in some crime? And then the
power goes out.
Bausch takes his time to make you feel what they
are feeling. In fact, when a knock came at my own door (something very
rare nowadays) I almost fell out of the chair. (It was the mailman).
Bausch
understands that the threat of violence can be more frightening than
actual violence. He gives you enough information to understand, sort of,
what might be going on. The story ends with the woman, standing at an
upstairs window, with a loaded gun. The kids wait downstairs baseball
bats and knives at the ready. The other woman waits too.
Superb. There are probably pdf's online if you care to read it
George Kelley
Jerry House
TracyK
Steve Lewis
Kevin Tipple
Todd Mason
