I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: January 2, 2024] “Evolution”

I used to read a New Yorker story every week.  And then life caught up with me.   I haven’t read them in a while, but after reading the Short Story Advent Calendar, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed reading a short story, so I grabbed a handful of magazines from my unread stack (1 resolution for 2024 is to read all the magazines in this enormous pile) and started with this one.

I didn’t love this story probably because it started as one thing and turned into something else (evolution much?).

Set in 1974, the story opens wit Cara dancing on a fire escape in New York City.  She slipped and broke her leg.  She has a terrible memory of the hospital and a guy who had been sitting with a friend but who just left him there.

When she got a little older she started dating a guy named Brody (did people have that name in 1974?).  He was a few years older and they fooled around a lot.  She was really into sex and felt it was a way of communicating with the world.

Eventually, he convinces her (she is now 16) to hitchhike to Arizona where a friend of his lives.  So there’s a lot of scenes in various vehicles with drivers of varying levels of grossness.

They arrive in Tucson and Brody’s friend, barely knows him (they met at camp) and isn’t happy to house them.  Brody seems to make her have sex in front of the friend (she doesn’t really mind) and then Brody takes off on her.

So it’s a cautionary tale.

The only surprise is that the story has an epilogue.  Cara has grown up and had girls of her own.  She is surprised by how much her generation dislikes sex.