People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water by Annie Proulx

This is a fabulous story about the Tinsleys who live in Texas during the Great Depression. Mrs Tinsley was a woman of nerves who was-- "distracted and fretted by shrill sounds . . . As they crossed the Little Laramie, the infant howling intolerably . . . Mrs Tinsley stood up and hurled the crying infant into the water . . . . As if to make up for her fit of destruction, Mrs Tinsley developed an intense anxiety for the safety of the surviving children tying them to chairs in the kitchen lest they wander outside and come to harm."

One of their sons, Ras, left home to travel the world. He is severely injured but back at home starts chasing women. He has natural urges that he can never tame and which lead to his ultimate demise. A powerful story about trying to bride passions. The final line regarding the story reads:

"If you believe that [the story], you'll believe anything."

Allog by Edith Pearlman

"There were five mailboxes in the vestibule: little wooden doors in embarrassing proximity, like privies." "No one liked to be seen there... The widower got too few letters. The Moroccans got too many, all bills. The soprano go some, enough, too much, too little; what did quantity matter." "The noun 'allog' entered the accommodating vocabulary. The word became disconnected from the idea of chieftains; but it gained the connotation, at least in Jerusalem, of 'resident indispensable.' In heedless Tel Aviv it sometimes refers to the janitor."

The Third and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri

This story compares the lunar landing to a man moving to the United States from India in order to eventually bring his wife, Mala, as well. The man's marriage is arranged. While he is working here he boards with a Mrs Croft who is extremely old and keeps exclaiming "A flag on the moon! Isn't that splendid!" and who expects everyone around her to have the same childlike exuberance about man's "final frontier" The voice of this story captures Mrs Croft as well as the man's although they are both from different continents. The author does a splendid job of also showing us the different ideologies of the time.

The Anointed by Kathleen Hill

"In Miss Hughe's seventh-grade music class, we were expected to sit without moving finger or foot while she played for us what she called 'the music of the anointed.'" Miss Hughe's hand could easily span more than an octave. Her lifelong dream was to be a concert pianist. She got into a ski accident where she broke three fingers that never fully healed, and thus ended her piano career. One quiet student, Norman, is also a gifted student who suddenly loses his dad. Miss Hughes plays Mozart's Requiem -- a prayer for the dead.
"You will hear the music that I am about to play for you a prayer for the dead, a prayer that they may at last find the peace that so often escapes us in life. Because boys and girls, in praying for the dead we are praying for ourselves in that hour when we, too, far away as that hour might seem to us now, be joining their ranks."
Below is a link to "Requiem for a Tower" which contains Mozart's famous Requiem.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XI_oWrseTKk

He's at the Office by Allan Gurganus

"Till the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, most American men wore hats to work. What happened?" This story is about a father who spends an inordinate amount of time at the office -- a workaholic you could say. He is also what I would consider an anachronism (a living relic of the past). "Since June of forty-five it's been All work and no play makes Jack." He is still working at eighty and had to write his own notes to remind himself about simple information.
"Forcibly retired, my father lived at home in his pajamas. Mom made him wear the slippers and robe to help with his morale." Mom and son set up her sewing room as his new office which he uses just like he did with his real office. "And, son? Along with the bad news, I think there's something good. He died at the office."

Good for the Soul by Tim Gautreax

Father Ledet has good intentions. It's just that his things don't work out exactly as he would want them to. One day he goes to give last rites to Clyde Arceneax. Father Ledet gets drunk beforehand and wrecks his car into a woman's car on the way to the hospital. The cop who comes along suspects that Father is drunk. Meanwhile, Clyde confesses to Father Ledet that he stole a friend's car years ago and has kept it in storage. Clyde's wife asks Father to keep it to himself so that Clyde doesn't die with a cloud over his head. Father Ledet has problems of his own. His license is revoked and some in his Parrish find out. Clyde's wife asks Father Ledet to take the truck back to the friend. Father agrees to. But he runs into deeper trouble trying to explain to the police why he is returning a dusty old truck while intoxicated. In the end this story is all about being completely honest with yourself and others.

The Fix by Percival Everett

Just as da Vinci dreamed up the Vitruvian Man, so too has Everett portrayed the perfect man in "The Fix". While da Vinci's deals more with the mathematical calculations and exactness of the human body, Everett shows us a simple, yet perfect man named Sherman Olney. One day Douglas Langly discovers Sherman outside his sandwich shop being beaten by thugs. Douglas scares them off and takes Sherman in. Sherman miraculously fixes everything brought to him--all anyone has to do is ask for Sherman to fix something. From Douglas's broken refrigerator to a woman needing help with a crumbling marriage, Sheman can fix it all. Everyone in town soon discovers Sherman's gift for fixing things and comes to him to get something "fix"ed. He performs a miracle and then runs away knowing that word will get around.
"You have to be careful about what you fix. If you fix the valves in an engine, but the bearings are shot, you'll get more compression, but the engine will still burn up. If you irrigate a desert, you might empty a sea. It's a complicated business, fixing things."

The Gilgul of Park Avenue by Nathan Englander

Charles Luger receives a revelation one day while riding in a cab that he is Jewish. He simply decides that if he is Jewish he better begin living like a Jew. The bad news is that he decides to tell his wife after he has received this revelation. What makes it worse is that he decides to spring the news on her after she has been at a long day at work and has just finished the day with a root canal. She doesn't take the news well. So Charles decides to talk to someone who he believes can help: a Rabbi. Not just any Rabbi, but one that he simply finds looking in the phone book: Rabbi Meintz. The Rabbi helps Charles see less of the need to see his shrink and more to see the Rabbi. His wife gets even and invites the shrink to dinner where a full kosher meal will be served. He invites Rabbi Meintz. (You can imagine how it turns out) Charles eventually becomes a zealot fanatic of Jewish customs and laws to the point that he won't push elevator buttons on the Sabbath.

The Glass Cup of Elijah, Bohemian, 19th century.

The Story by Amy Bloom

Most stories are created by words, but it is this story that is created by what the author relates to the reader as what she has omitted from her story that makes this story complete. The Story is written in the 1st person omniscient view. The narrator tells a rather unremarkable story until she begins to interrupt her own story to inject omissions that were made. "Can I say that the husband was not any kind of importer?" or "I don't want to leave out the time Sandra got into a fight with Joe's previous girlfriend..."

It is these blatant omissions and retelling of them that make this truly "The Story". This is a picture that has been created out of words that I found online. This would not be a complete picture without the gaps.