Haunted by Walter Mosley, 2020
The magic trick:
Writing a familiar story that keeps surprising with new plot directions
This one might seem familiar as you go through it. The plot dabbles in recognizable turns – death, regret, oddball magical realism that connects our protagonist’s soul with the man he died hating.
The thing is – the ensuing turns never fail to throw you. Just when you feel things seem so familiar that they’re verging on cliché, the story goes in a slightly different direction that surprises and confounds.
And that’s quite a trick on Mosley’s part.
The selection:
Even as my body rotted and festered under the unblinking eyes of Clark Heinemann, the thoughts I had at death survived. One thousand unpublished stories, 26,473 rejection letters, and all those editorial twits that never gave me a break. The only thing left of me was a raging emotion at every publisher of every insignificant quarterly—but most of all, Clark Heinemann.
“Paul Henry is dead,” a young woman’s voice said from somewhere in the void.
I was suddenly back in proximity to the living; aware, seeing the world from a set of eyes that were a bit stronger than mine had been.
“Who?” The man’s voice seemed to reverberate.
“That guy who has sent us a story every six weeks for the past twenty years.”
“You mean Mr. Again and Again?”
“That’s him.”
As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.
Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.
Short Story Magic Tricks 