The Intruder by Nada Alic, 2019
The magic trick:
A seemingly simple conflict that reveals complications as it moves toward resolution
The story starts with what feels to the reader like a fairly simple conflict. Our narrator hears someone or something outside her apartment one night. She worries. We worry for her. The situation seems very A or B. Either she will thwart the intruder and remain safe, or she won’t be able to thwart the intruder and she will come to harm.
The topic makes it stressful, but the either/or nature of the conflict is oddly comforting to the reader. We are familiar with this kind of plot path.
Except that the rest of the story completely diverts from such a simple setup.
There is thwarting of the intruder, but not really. The narrator takes control of the situation, but not really. What’s more, the answers we get about the intruder and the nature of the threat reveal a problem far more fundamental and sinister than any single criminal.
And that’s quite a trick on Alic’s part.
The selection:
The next morning, I got up and stood in front of my bathroom mirror, splashing water on my face like they do in skin care commercials with the abandon of someone who truly loves themselves; someone who is glad to be alive. And I was; I was thrilled. I wondered who it could have been. Was it someone I had wronged? I had wronged so many people in my lifetime, some intentionally but most, accidentally. Little wrongs left unresolved and compounded over time that now seem unforgivable: all of the calls I never returned, all of those times I told someone they had something in their teeth when they had nothing in their teeth or that one time I lost my cousin Anthony at the mall and pretended I didn’t for an entire day until he showed up at his mother’s doorstep the next morning with a missing shoe and a speech impediment that would never fully fade. He must be in his early 20s by now.
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 