#358 The Whistle- Eudora Welty
Sara and Jason Morton were in a cold marriage; not loveless
or resentful, juts cold and growing darker by the years. “The darkness was
thin, like some sleazy dress that has been worn and worn for many winters and
always lets the cold through to the bones.”
As they lie in their cold bed at night, thinking about
warmer times, the town whistle blows. It’s a whistle that warns the town about
the coming freeze. Like John Donne’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” (or
Hemmingway’s if you prefer…not Metallica’s though, heh) the couple listens and
waits for their own end.
“Every night they lay trembling with cold, but no more
communicative in their misery than a pair of window shutters beaten by a
storm.”
This is the first Welty story of the batch I truly enjoyed.
Perhaps it’s the lack of dialogue, which I have found trouble connecting with
in her other stories. The descriptive writing here is pretty spectacular, and
the mood like something out of a Chekhov story.
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