I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 17, 2023] “Swanee”

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 Sara Lippmann.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 17. Sara Lippmann, author of Jerks, removes her shoes before entering the ball pit.

I really liked the tone of this story, and I liked a lot of the content.  But I felt a little confused by the story in a few points.

The story is set at a birthday party at Gator Grotto.  As it opens, we learn that Billy Monroe was stuck in the fun tunnel.

Aside from that the party had gone very well  The birthday boy, Justin, had gotten his presents. The kids were (mostly) well-behaved, and no one had an allergy attack.

They were all getting ready to leave, although Justin had just grabbed some more coins and had run off.

Justin’s mom had coped pretty well with everything that had gone on, but she wasn’t prepared to deal with Billy.  Her husband, Ed was off paying for everything (and then watching a ball game on his phone).

She was starting to get stressed when “the mommies arrived.”

Immediately they set to work.  That’s the deal with mo0omies. We can’t help it. Give us a scene and we make it our destiny.

Billy Monroe’s mother, Casey came in–eight months pregnant.  Her third.

Billy’s mother had been married to Jack and all of the mommies loved him. He stayed at home so he was on call whenever they needed a child picked up.  He worked at home in his shed and was always covered in sawdust.

But he was gone now and they all blamed Casey.

But the mommies were still there to help and soon enough some of them were in the tunnel too.

But there’s an elliptical history that we think we understand that makes the undercurrent of the sto