Short Story: Florette by Ward Just

Florette by Ward Just is yet another story I read online in Narrative Magazine for the ongoing Short Story September Challenge at CB James' blog.

It starts with Florette being carried in a stretcher by four man from a pine forest. It is very cold and snowing and those man are having difficulty in walking.

"The way down was hard, the trail winding and slick underfoot, insecure."

She has fallen down and hurt herself somehow while taking a walk on that Sunday afternoon. While they are carrying her, she goes about thinking about her life. She, a French woman is married to an American. She thinks of her mother, her father who left them both when she was five, her first husband, who was an older man and died leaving her nothing. She thinks of her knitting. She drifts from present to past, back and forth. She is conscious of her pain and the cold. She wants to reach the clearing as soon as possible but she can't do a thing about it. She is dependent on the people who had been carrying her and now are taking a little rest. They are not hikers but are rough and coarse people.

I liked the way the story goes. Initially we know nothing about the woman. Slowly we know that she is a middle aged woman. Her reminiscences about her past in he thoughts and it is as if we are intruding upon her thoughts. Another story told in inner voice. I recommend...