Short Story: The Ruin of Grant Lowery by Audrey Niffenegger

The ruin of Grant Lowery by Audrey Niffenegger


Grant Lowery meets three elderly women in a bar. They had made a bet.

"We made a bet," said the lady, with a serious expression. "We bet that you would be willing to spend a year with one of us, and teach that one how to be human."

He has a vision of a blonde girl in his mind and he can't make out what it is. He chooses or it is already chosen that he spend a year with the nameless fairy who contated him first.

"He woke the next morning with a sense of something forgotten, an appointment missed; what day of the week was it, anyway? Someone had brewed coffee. Grant felt slightly hungover. He struggled to remember the previous evening, but failed. He sat up and looked around."

He is in his own apartment but now completely redecorated and the fairy is there waiting for him to wake up. When he asks her name she shuts him up. His days fall into a pattern, he doing chores for her. Still he dreams of the girl. Then one day the girl tells him the old fairy is named Harriet. When he calls her by her name, she disappears. And the blonde girl takes over his home. And him.

A fairy tale set in the contemporary world with all the elements of present time evil. It is not about fairies but most likely about witches. Read on.....