Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Help finding a short story

I'm front-paging this for the selfish reason that I want to see if anyone knows the title or author of this story--
I remember an amazing short story (well, of course, not the title or author) where a little boy recently lost his mother. He has misplaced a beloved toy, and his father, not wanting him to feel more pain, hears him praying to God that the toy would be recovered. Well, Dad goes out and gets him a replacement toy and tells him, "I found it!" and the boy thinks his prayer was answered. Then Dad hears him praying to God that his mom will come back.

Great use of irony and pathos-- and "wrong thing for the right reason" action. (Anyone know this story? I'd love to use it in a class.)

Alicia

10 comments:

Riley Murphy said...

Theresa?
Maybe you need to write the darn story yourself.
Murphy:D

Cathy C. Hall said...

Don't know that story, but it kinda reminds me of a (sweeter) version of "The Monkey's Paw."

Dave Shaw said...

Alicia, do you have any idea when or in what form (magazine, anthology, or ???) you read this story? Sometimes making the haystack smaller makes the odds of finding the needle a little better (not that they ever get good, mind you!).

em said...

Alicia, are you sure it wasn't a song? I remember one like that.

em said...

Stephen King? What about pet cemetary.

Wes said...

This is off topic, but I was reading some of your old posts and ran across your discussion of the dialog in the movie Breaking Away. You are right. It was good, and there's a lot to like about that movie. I remember distinctly the scene regarding the refund. The characters were so finely drawn; the kid, the father, the mother (what a hoot), Mooch. The town/gown split was well done and accurate. The scenery and photography of the Hoosier holyland was spectacular. I was in grad school at IU when it was filmed. Some of my friends were extras, and the scene of tuning the bicycle spokes was filmed in a buddy's garage.

Wes said...

I just consulted my ultimate reference source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Away) and was surprised at how higly the American Film Institute rated Breaking Away.

em said...

That was one of my favorite movies, Wes. I'm going to see what Alicia said about it. Thanks!:)

Wes said...

The Little 500 bike race is real and is run as part of the festivities around the time of the Indy 500. It is held in the old football stadium before about 30,000 spectators. Swimming in the quarries is popular, but many people skinny dip unlike the actors in the film.

Edittorrent said...

Wes, I live up the road (Indy), and it was great seeing all those Indiana locations in Breaking Away. Very good film-- every character came to life.
Alicia (finally back from England)