SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 19, 2021] “The Fire Balloons”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my seventh time reading the Calendar. The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.
As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.
This is the story of Trudy, a young woman who pretends to be much younger in order to win a suitor.
Trudy met the man, Richard, on vacation. She and her friend Gwen had gone to Austria and after a couple of days they ran into Richard, who had known Gwen for years.
Richard and Trudy spent some time alone and she told him she was not quite twenty-two (he was thirty-five. They soon began a love affair.
When Trudy talked about dating an older man, Gwen pointed out that he was not much older than her. But Trudy told him that she shaved seven years off of her age.
When Gwen said it took courage to try to start again and again, Trudy said she was just jealous because she was so much older (they were, in fact the same age). And so Trudy begins carrying on like a twenty-two year old.
After a few more dates, Richard told Trudy that she must meet his mother. Gwen is a great friend of his mother and Trudy must become one as well.
The bulk of the rest of the story takes place at Richard’s mother’s house, where we try to learn exactly what being a great friend of Richard’s mother actually means. It’s kind of a dark story with an elliptical but enjoyable ending.
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