I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 16, 2023] “The Kit-Bag”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Algernon Blackwood.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 16. Algernon Blackwood, a prolific English author of ghost stories, died in 1951. His story “The Glamour of the Snow” appeared in the 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar, among other places.

Algernon Blackwood wrote a spooky story for the 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar.  It held up very well.  As does this one.

The story opens with the end of a court case.  A murderer (the defense attorney knew he was guilty) was found not guilty.  But the defense attorney was not pleased by the result.  He just wanted the case to be over.

As did his assistant.  His assistant was planning to go on a skiing trip when the trial was over and so he borrowed the barrister’s kit-bag to pack up for the trip.

He’s surprised at how crummy the kit-bag is–honestly, it was in quite a state, not what he’d expect from the barrister.  But he starts putting his things in it.

He hears the landlady coming up the stairs, but she never reaches his floor. He wonders what could have happened, but thinks not much of it after that.

As the night progresses and he thinks of more things to stuff in the kit-bag (which must be quite large), he keeps getting spooked by something in the room–the wind sounds like a breath, the shadows on the kit-bag look like a face, did the bag actually move?

He starts to really freak out, but surely he’s imagining everything.

The way the story plays out is really smart and clever.

This is the second time that Algernon Blackwell has given me the creeps and really impressed me.