The Rescue by V.S. Pritchett, 1973
The magic trick:
Bringing the subtext into the main text suddenly during the story’s coda
“The Rescue” follows an unusual emotional arc. It moves along for awhile seemingly a portrait of the narrator’s mother and her interesting relationship with an interesting man, Ellis. Well, I shouldn’t say “seemingly,” It is a portrait of the mom, and it peaks during the titular rescue scene at the lake. But as the resolution begins to play out, the reader is jolted by a change of direction. Suddenly, it becomes clear that the story was portraying something very different all along. Now maybe I should’ve seen it there all along. Certainly when you look back through the story there are signs of the narrator’s feelings nestled throughout the text. But it’s a subtle thing, and the change, if you want to call it that, at the end only goes to show how people’s lives and stories are never solitary; they always intertwine and influence. And that’s quite a trick on Pritchett’s part.
The selection:
After he left I said, “He looked as thought he was going to cry.”
“No, his eyes just swell up when he looks at you,” my brother said.
“I’ll say,” said George.
I knew that. Ellis had very large eyes and they did swell whenever he saw me come into the library. I used to make up questions about books until I made him leave his desk and say, “I’ll get that book for you.”
I used to have a special look that said, “You can do better than that” or “Why do you do what you’re told?” And I had another very long look that said, “I know that when you are saying things to mother, you are really saying them to me. You are frightened of me.”
Short Story Magic Tricks 