Show aPtttntnie'410 t 0 1 - - - t - - 6 0 4 - Salt lake Tributtt Sunitay Morning ' Septemler 22 1940 1 Gild iari ice New CE—Hol tte wh :e her w' I Retigila-613- a n d 'Ways 1 A C011111110131111edi ( NS Mrs tined lattnell----Ifirillrliciet- i Iralle 81111 home Is were which longed ) he 'The deco tid for Bridge - A Litizzet aftet luncheo laughter all Eigh vith Mr ty Ers 9 Tribune Short Story By Dorothy Leacher Salt Lake Citiy The ear coming down the viaduct highwaytuped to the right brakes It narrowly missed Josefintte who held the grocery sack tightly screeching on her way The top of an egg carton appeared above continued as she she thought- the eggs would have been had car hit her the thebag If smashed And then came to her mind the idea she might have been badly ii not perturb her so mudit as the other hurt Somehow that reflectithi-diwas In fact it rather pleasant She recalled her last contact with a doctor It had been around' Christmas time that she had gone to old irascible Dr McGann to see about spells of dizziness she had been suffering The doctor had written her a prescription and Warned her bluntly about excessive exercise or emotional strain and feeling rather important she had the prescription filled used It up neglected to have It refilled and continued ignoring his warning about activity All in all- - it had been a pleasant experience So now the thought of being injured intrigued her Lev or and ye retur In trip i vere hen D1 SI TH STU V f As she turned into the gravel path that led to the gray frame house she looked down at the nasturtiums that bordered it Their gay and piquant beauty the heat of the afternoon gun and the firmness of the gravel under her feet caused Josefina to hum as she rounded the house to go to the back door It was a discordant little tune such as the Spanish peasants have been accustomed to improvise while they do their daily tasks As soon as she closed the door her humming ceased The quiet of the house stilled her voice for the rooms were dark and cool and silent She busied herself with putting away the groceries then lifted the clock from the kitchen table It had been lying face down since it did not keep good time upright The girl wanted to get another one but what was4he need? It was 4 o'clock There were no household tasks to do She longed for gossip but there was no one with whom he could talk There had not been since the girl came She looked around the room as If searching for something to do Then apparently deciding on some action she smoothed her percale dress went into the bedroom and picked up the work basket that waS- - lying on the bureau It was empty Next It was a tooled leather box She would look over the keepsakes it These held znemories co0a1ned for hir that even the girl could not take from her She carried the box into the living room and sat down on the over-stuff- ed chair near the front winShe could almost imagine dow Mantrel was with her laughing and joking as in the days in the old country 'when he had come to Madrid Their first meeting had been at a church fiesta and dancing with her to the guitar music he had told her of her beauty In that remote day she had been but slender and lithe Her dark hair she had worn plaited tight to her head Her proud resilient carriage had given her an air of youthful vitality There had been no hint then of the heavy woman she was today Her hair she now wore short and curled in the nondescript style of Her an inexpensive permanent thickened had 'making her body appear old rather than middle aged But Josefina would not let her thoughts return to the present How far more enjoyable it was to recall the happy days she and Manuel had known together from the time of their courtship when they had made love over chocolate and puchero until his death five year ago in this amazing America which after a quarter of a century still was not patria to her Smiling Josefina picke4 up a pin from the leather box It was an abalone On with a broken clap "A pin for mama" Juani had said when he gave it to her—as a ga'ngling boy money spending his first It was on their trip to California Joselina and Manuel had with their son Juan enjoyed that vacation which they took the year or so before the scant days of the crash of 19 a bad time even for a good ' shoemaker like Manuel That trip had been the subject of much laughter in the following years How often they had themselves recalled and retold to their friends the episode of Manuel's losing his hat on a roller coaster ride of Joselinats being knocked over by It breaker at the beach of Juan's getting lost at Catalina 'As Josefina laid the pin back in the box she noticed that her hands were moist with perspiration Laying the box on—the radio near by she rose from her chair pulling ed slow-movi- - tit:::"1"447r7::1 t:- Cross 4 01mit ng self-earn- ed di? -i-:1 e a e it ' : all Psficag ROCZ13' SS 4 brows contracted by his Serious ex pression "I love ber and she reeds me It's not every—glrl as fine is "hi Is' that'll marry a foreigner - ' ettri3oll5orars - - tt!'l 1 - ir 111'1 ::7117' kIf "I 1 - I 1 11 141qL!:!:!141- 7 "You a foreigner:9 Interrupted Josefina "there is no truth in -- that Iler grandparents—were they not born in some other country? IIt is the truth you speak the language so that I can understand IV better than I can understaild the words she saY1 but you would be happier with a girl—" "But she's the real stuff It's not that her folks are like mine or not I 1 :111111 I 111 1 11 '11 I iI iilI mawm A I - 4h? i ! rtig if --- - - 1111 Initi b I 11- t L II 10' -- - Iii4N - V- Jc ' t t 111 ' 4 74 ''r- - - 'I k '' i111 !" k - - tik litlipf:1J1111100' lz: -- 1015 Al$Viol4 ‘c ‘ s - -x k- '? 4 11 : c''' -- ng u - 's had-urg- - A QuIvey ' re— r - ' 1)44:' worked it under e" our directions and has made it a lot better than it wis when she first sub- i mitted it and it is ' t very possible that the exercise of herProfessor quiver brain on the material with whic- hshe has been working has had a Be tendency to chill the story that as it may the story is somewhat too coldly analytical and it thereby and in that degree fails to develop in the reader that emotional intensity which it should and was intended to arouse This working up of the reader' emotional intensity is a difficult thing to manage One has to fight shy of the hysterical and the melodramatic on the one side and avoid coldness and indifference on the other either of which will inevitably ruin a story There are two great means of this managing of the reader's emotions One comes in the selection of the facts to be used in the story out of the hundred or more that might be included In the placing of these facts in the story he also has an tuxillary job In the grouping of them in such order that they will be the most These are really one arousing thing for facts alone are merely static it is their collocation which The other makes them dynamic thing it the wording of these facts when they have been chained together in their best order The short two- - and words are of far greater emotional value than are the polysyllables This comes primarily because we learned them when we were very young when Me was to us a highly intensified thing and into them we packed immense quantities of emotion hidden in them just as the electric shock is concealed and seems nonexistent in the storage battery In the short words of our English language are the chief storage batteries of all of the emtional vulus of all of the ixperiente of our race as well as of ourselves There is always one word for each particular thought situation and for each building of a strtking sentence which will fit in that one place in order to give that thought the most penetrating and exciting power It is the careful choice of these elec tric words which more even than the choice of facts gives to a story its great emotional arousement t This is the second and perhaps the greatest means of "pepping up" emotional intensity in a story We are inclined to think that what ) is yet needed in this story more than any other one thing is a careful scanning of all of the'words used with the substitution in some perhaps many places of other words of high potentiality in order that the feelings of-- the reader may be brought to higher pitch than is here It is a good story but it attained could be much better and all of us want the best I "1 4111"weissc iVi - - 7!"'?" 4li 4 w writer has '1 4 -' 4"4"'Ir-'417-4- "" 4'' 11—1'' — -- '40"414---- '77? 7 ---- e sk ig 001:00-c- I: I — lill : tteAV L This story is simply easily knd beautifully told yet it does not arouse one's emotions as it should It Is probable that there was too much planning too much purely intellectual ' the thought in The making of it: 40 11'' 1" - I By Professor t ' 9 74 - 1 'If Chill Story --- :- 1 lit111"111111 11 04 1 11111114 41 i' '1'111 :01!!!14 741111 !!11 Plann MAkes Good liki--91 ¼ herself up as if the motion was a ' el conscious had been She one tiring 1 of her eight these last few months she had The light mood in which LitageMMIIIIMMINIVIIIIMIMMIIIII come home had gradually left her She felt tired old The loneliness This time she lifted out a cross and chain a she had felt since the girl's coming was almost tangible concrete She She — tliat counts walked out into the kitchen The girl felt rebuked-humiliate- d It's— She's okeh I was sure it was time to get the meal tell you ahe's---before her friend with whom he started but it was just 4:30 had gone to a show in the neighbor"All right my son if it is so it hood theater In bravado she inReturning to the chair she took makes me happy She has need of a newhome is it not the truth besisted "Oh let me see it" and took up the box again This time she lifted out a cross and chain a gold cause the father is dead and the the box from Josefina's hand In a cross It was five years ago—yet few seconds she had unfastened the mother is to marry again?' It seemed many more—that Manuel "Sure Forget it She's a swell clasp and the cross hung from her had handed that cross to her The kid Say where did put my tool throat Josefina sat watching her as if she could not believe what the box?" And Juan had gone on with girl had not been part of their lives then Juan was just in his last year his tinkering with the radio girl had done and then suddenly Manuel was dying of high school she stood up she )new she must get Josefina had made no further Pain and weakness had convinced the cross She stepped toward the protest to Juan but When she was him of what the doctor could not alone as on this afternoon she felt girl who was now fumbling to reHe was dying at an Aragonese move the chain Joselina thought free to think her own thoughts should die with courage dignity than three less the girl was trying to keep it She Since the marriage ' The priest had and reverence reached for the cross and as she years ago the girl had not mingled reached the dizzy sensation she had given him extreme unction and he with Josefina's friends when they was lying still and weak when he not felt since last winter came over came to the house Shehad not had roused to call Josefina to him her a hundredfold and she fell responded to their attempts in unShe recalled the cross lying against to include her plutching the cross grammatical English his creased throat He had motioned Even before the arrival of the in their talk and she had made no to her to take it off And he had doctor whom the friend had franapparent effort to learn that most beautiful of all languages smooth spoken then as if he would rouse tically called the girl knew Josehimself in spite of the pain and diaits in varied fina was dead And in the confuvivid and rolling opiates that were sion of the hours that followed she lects Soon the friends had stopped easing him into the final and cornhad had no words with Juan who coming had come home strangely lolemn 'plete insensibllity "La cruz—te el And her religion was so strange hijo---sesposa los hijos" these and distant—calm as If this was an Josefina had gone to the girl's f words he had mouthed- Their-soun- d 'elate-o6hürch the Sunday that—Juan hard conscince he thOst handle-wit- h was barely discernible but Josefina some friends and care And he did not the with great girl gone grasped their import The cross was on a picnic There were no images weep although when Dr McGann to go to her their son his wife and who had voluntarily stayed until he no stained glass windows and worst 'Of all then their sons And then Josef ma came opened the bedroom door there was no image of the thought she heard him say "Muy gently he had crossed himself and Virgin Better far in the mind of simpatica muy simpatica" murmured ''Mary Mother of God Josefina to neglect the God than Those two "Muy simpatica" have mercy on her soul" Mary words are the highest praise one Now in the evening Juan was in And then there was the matter of the shoe shop -- Juan had been conSpanish person can give another the city rhere arrangements for There is no English synonym that tent to continue in the neighborthe funeral were being made And ed They hood shop until the girl gives the exact meaning the girl was alone in the house Her stand for the generosity the kindlifriend had offeied to stay but she him to get employment as a clerk in ness of a simple pepole had sent her away a shoe store in the city It was only right the cross should The girl glanced into the mirror It was almost as if Juan were bego to Juan but the girl— over the hall table Her face was coming a stranger to her himself Josefina had unknowingly Not since his marriage had they pale A lock of hair had fallen over clutched the cross until it hurt her her forehead Her skin was moist Although Josefina really talked hand The postman passing by saw with perspiration She smoothed spoke English better than most colJosefina through the window and her hair and gazed for a moment lege students speak Spanish she gave a friendly whistle to attract at the image in the glass In her could not express herself fluently her attention but she did not hear mind was one thought:- She had inand freely in any but her native him Solemn her face clouded and In tongue And Juan since his mardirectly killed Juan's mother she was morose dejected as only in to not her would heart one was her fear: Juan would speak riage a naturally lighthearted and friendnot forgive her Spanish ly person can be She turned front the mirror took "It is not right" he had said to her "for us to speak in a language For two years after Manuel's a eigaret from an end table and she cannot understand" death her life had continued much then crushed it without smoking it "But Juan not difficult it is to ' Her friehds had often as before What if the doctor surprisingly kind had not speak the language" and considerate had hurriedly ex"come in for a cup of chocolate changed his attitude plained the circumstances of the Did Juan understand this strange Juan had gone ing the afternoon death to Juan and asserted that to mass with her girl? Did he love her as she had Of course she Josefina's death within a few Josefina let the heat Manuel? loved had been lonely but she had known months had been inevitable in any of the sun merge with a feeling of no loneliness so bitter as this she'd event? This did not change the fact melancholy to give her a sensation that she Juan's wife had taken the She endured since Juan had brought the of drowsiness and relaxation cross and Josefina Juan's mother leaned back against the chair She girl home had died felt sleep coming upon her The girl had gone to school with - Suddenly a door slammed Jose- - The girl could not rest In the Juan andfr although he had taken confusion no one had thought of fina sat up In her left hand she her out once in awhile it was not still held the cross With her right preparing any food but she could not sit down by herself now and she rubbed her face to awaken- - heruntil some time after Manuel's death eat in this house She decided to self It must be the girl With that jasefina had realized that her this thought she turned toward the straighten up the room and looked son had found his novia sweetheart about to see what was out of order hall door as the girl and a friend She was a light-hairand then she saw the cross lying entered the room girl with on a table where someone had careThe girl had on a short full ways strange indeed to Josef Ina skirted print dress and shoes with lessly laid It She looked at it but She had been working in a bakery did not touch It Why had it meant heel and sole merged into one Her across from the shoe shop and would so much to Josefina? fair skin and light hair accented be very pleasant when Josefina the red of her lips One did not Suddenly she could stand the house no longer She walked into notice at a casual glance that her came in to make a purchase but the hall and then out to the front features were too pronounced for she spoke in a rapid Manner that Her friend had porch Watching the cars passing patrician beauty was hard to follow and she made Increased her feeling of loneliness on a dark dress and plain pumps but it was nót so depressing as stayand looked drab In contrast change and answered the telephone The girl paused as Josef ma ing in the house and straightened goods on the She kept wondering If Juan reallooked up in the confusion of awakcounter in such fast order that it ized how hard it is for- a girl to did not speak She turned and ening seemed to Josefina that the girl was live in a house that she has had to her friend "I'll get my hat and trying to make a show of business no part in furnishing She queswalk part way uptown with you to avoid talking with her tioned whether he understood the It is not quite five yet" embarrassment of not being ablyto And then she saw the cross It lay Before Juan had married the girl ask her own Mena' in to her on top of the other things in the box had to one him spoken Josephine lest they be made where Josefina had now replaced it by day whilefhe was doing some odd wo- the presence of a It was very pretty man who spoke a strange ati jots around the house She had "Let me take a look at the cross" She could not asked him why he did hot choose a she said rapidly so rapidly that the plicated language but doubt 'that Juan loved her only word that Joselina really girl of his own people: "Su esposa enough to realize that the strangegrasped was 'erotic' It frightened porque no te casas con una ness he could not have avoided noher The cross was sacred The girl hole?" could not just take it She closed ticing between his mother and her tell was not of her doing alone His reply in English his heavy thebox the chain hanging 'from it sense-numbi- CDC3 - ' gold cross Perhaps he should have married a girl of his own people Perhaps it would have been better if she had kept on at the bakery She was young There was plenty of time for her to find someone But even as she thought these things she thought of Juan the way tils dark brows lifted when he laughed the steadiness of his hand when he had slipped he wedding ring on her trembling finger the lightness of his touch when he had bandaged her wrist the day of the store picnic And she knew for her there had been no other way One of thr cars coming down the viaduct highway slowed up and stopped A tall man his features Indistinguishable in the dull light of the street lamps got out closed the door firmly and turned toward the house Then as if he were'startied he began to run As he reached the porch steps he stopped for he'd seen the girl He reached down and pulled her up "It was dark—I thought—" The girl feeling his strength tntirnitited "The tints 1 ' touldn't rest Juan—I'm sorry I'm—" And then she said no more for she could not suppress the feeling of relief that swept over her But Juan could speak and as he held the screen door open for her to enter the house he said "Never mind The cross well it's hers really We'll put it away with her but there'll be something else for us" And then as the screen door slammed afid as they stood close together in the darkened hall he murmured to her not realizing he was speaking Spanish what he had never spoken to a girl before "Muy simpatica muy simpatica" And the And with this girl understood coming of her understanding was fears somehow the going : I — J I z' ir t 6 le o' - of-h- er 4' s - Notice to Writers Editor's Note: All manuscripts submitted in The Tribune's contest for writers must be accompanied by the signed certificate below This certificate can be clipped from your paper and signed or you may copy it on your typewriter The Tribune reserves the right to reject any manuscript not accompanied by a signed certificate AUTHOR'S crwrincATE State City Street Number 190 Date ed - i I hereby certify that the short story incrosed titled Is submitted to The Salt Lake Tribune as an original composition that no other story part of the same has been taken et copied from any or publication and that the entire composition has never been or in any printed or published before In any other publication form I further agree that any prize money I may receive from The Salt Lake Tribune in the event that this story is accepted for publication will be accepted by' me as evidence of good faith that this is an original composition as stated above I Signed Attention of ail amateur writers submitting manuscripts in The Salt Lake Tribune's Short Story contest is directed to the fact that manuscripts will not be retlirned unless 'stamps to cover postage are inclosed Neither will The Tribune enter into any correspondence Concerning dispesal of such manuscripts Criticism is made of each manustript received and this is returned to the writer along with the manuscript if the story is found not acceptable providing return- postage has been sent If - 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