Story Knit

SAND TO GLASS, WORD CAFE post:

“What short story have you read
that made an indelible impact
on you?”

Amy Hempl, "Beg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, Rep."

Actually I have two or three
short stories I could choose.

But the appropriate selection
for this blog would be Hempl’s
knitting story.

The main character
comforts her friend
through the last stages
of a difficult pregnancy.

MC unmarried
has chosen to have
a ‘procedure’ that
exempts her from her
friend’s fate.

She sees Dale Anne
through to delivery.
Takes one look at the
newborn clad in his ducky
pajamas and disappears
into a miasma of knitting.

The story advances
a year.

The MC visits the
mother and child.

She leaves a shopping bag
of knitted items next to
the entry door.

The two women admire
the child prone
on the couch between them;
they watch for a comet
that fails to appear.

The story winds forward.
The MC gets ready to leave.
Dale Anne opines that her friend
must stay for the opening
of the gifts. 

Dale Anne withdraws each item
from the shopping bag filled
with hand knit sweaters- plain,
cable, pictured bears and
ducks, and asks, “Are you really
okay?”

The story arc concludes:
the MC has knitted
herself into a
K the 2 remaining
stitches together
mindset.

Amen!
Knit yourself together!