The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty - Eudora Welty [2]
I have been told, both in approval and in accusation, that I seem to love all my characters. What I do in writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart, and skin of a human being who is not myself. Whether this happens to be a man or a woman, old or young, with skin black or white, the primary challenge lies in making the jump itself. It is the act of a writer's imagination that I set most high.
EUDORA WELTY
Jackson, Mississippi
May 1980
Contents
Preface
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A Curtain of Green and Other Stories
Lily Daw and the Three Ladies
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A Piece of News
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Petrified Man
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The Key
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Keela, the Outcast Indian Maiden
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Why I Live at the P.O.
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The Whistle
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The Hitch-Hikers
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A Memory
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Clytie
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Old Mr. Marblehall
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Flowers for Marjorie
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A Curtain of Green
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A Visit of Charity
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Death of a Traveling Salesman
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Powerhouse
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A Worn Path
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The Wide Net and Other Stories
First Love
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The Wide Net
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A Still Moment
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Asphodel
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The Winds
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The Purple Hat
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Livvie
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At The Landing
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The Golden Apples
Shower of Gold
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June Recital
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Sir Rabbit
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Moon Lake
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The Whole World Knows
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Music from Spain
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The Wanderers
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The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories
No Place for You, My Love
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The Burning
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The Bride of the Innisfallen
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Ladies in Spring
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Circe
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Kin
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Going to Naples
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Uncollected Stories
Where Is the Voice Coming From?
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The Demonstrators
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A Curtain of Green and Other Stories
1941
To Diarmuid Russell
LILY DAW AND THE THREE LADIES
Mrs. Watts and Mrs. Carson were both in the post office in Victory when the letter came from the Ellisville Institute for the Feeble-Minded of Mississippi. Aimee Slocum, with her hand still full of mail, ran out in front and handed it straight to Mrs. Watts, and they all three read it together. Mrs. Watts held it taut between her pink hands, and Mrs. Carson underscored each line slowly with her thimbled finger. Everybody else in the post office wondered what was up now.
"What will Lily say," beamed Mrs. Carson at last, "when we tell her we're sending her to Ellisville!"
"She'll be tickled to death," said Mrs. Watts, and added in a guttural voice to a deaf lady, "Lily Daw's getting in at Ellisville!"
"Don't you all dare go off and tell Lily without me!" called Aimee Slocum, trotting back to finish putting up the mail.
"Do you suppose they'll look after her down there?" Mrs. Carson began to carry on a conversation with a group of Baptist ladies waiting in the post office. She was the Baptist preacher's wife.
"I've always heard it was lovely down there, but crowded," said one.
"Lily lets people walk over her so," said another.
"Last night at the tent show—"said another, and then popped her hand over her mouth.
"Don't mind me, I know there are such things in the world," said Mrs. Carson, looking down and fingering the tape measure which hung over her bosom.
"Oh, Mrs. Carson. Well, anyway, last night at the tent show, why, the man was just before making Lily buy a ticket to get in."
"A ticket!"
"Till my husband went up and explained she wasn't bright, and so did everybody else."
The ladies all clucked their tongues.
"Oh, it was a very nice show," said the lady who had gone. "And Lily acted so nice. She was a perfect lady—just set in her seat and stared."
"Oh, she can be a lady—she can be," said Mrs. Carson, shaking her head and turning her eyes up. "That's just what breaks your heart."
"Yes'm, she kept her eyes on—what's that thing makes all the commotion?