‘Wish’ by Bobbie Ann Mason

Wish by Bobbie Ann Mason, 1988

The magic trick:

Maintaining a quiet, slow vibe for most of the story – interrupted only once for the retelling of a dramatic, painful memory

B is for Bobbie Ann.

“Wish” reminds me very much of Mason’s “Bumblebees,” at least in the way that the most exciting thing that happens in the story occurs 60 years prior to the text’s present tense.

It’s interesting reading this the same week that I read “Gravel” by Alice Munro. “Gravel” focuses on a life-changing incident and then reflects on how that incident has altered the narrator’s life.

“Wish” is the inverse. “Wish” focuses on the here and now of a family’s life in their 80s. It’s slow, quiet, a little sad, a little funny. Near the end, the plot rips open rather suddenly to relate a stunning death that happened many years earlier. The memory passes quickly and the story regains its mellow tone again. I like it. The format reflects the way we process life and memory. The dramatic, painful moments are always there. But for the most part we keep them buried and remain focused on the smaller, less important details of life – like putting away leftovers in the fridge and what shows we want to watch on TV.

And that’s quite a trick on Mason’s part.

The selection:

Hort fixed a plate of fried chicken, potatoes, field peas, and stewed apples for Sam to take home. He set it on the back seat of Damson’s car, along with fourteen eggs and a sack of biscuits. Damson spurted out of the driveway backward, scaring the hound dog back to his hole under a lilac bush.

“Hort and Cecil’s having a time keeping up this place,” Sam said, noticing the weed-clogged pen where they used to keep hogs.

Damson said, “Hort’s house always smelled so good, but today it smelled bad. It smelled like fried fish.”

“I never noticed it,” said Sam, yawning.

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