The newspapermen who wrote “Local Writer Vanishes” find other stories. Months go by, then a year. Marlene and Bea drink afternoon coffee and their conversation slips back to the everyday: the price of potatoes at Loblaws, who’s a good doctor and who’s not, what kind of pictures are showing these days. Marlene goes to shul more often, and stands for the Mourners’ Kaddish. But Tabitha imagines that her father stepped onto a bus, then onto a boat, and soon they’ll receive a postcard from India. She imagines him showing up in five years, his hair greyed or gone, with stories of living in Oregon, or Alaska, or the Alps. She imagines he simply moved into an apartment downtown. Sometimes—and this really puts ants in her stomach—she imagines he is hiding somewhere in the house, behind the couch or in the closets. She checks under her bed every night before she goes to sleep. THE DAY NATHAN DISAPPEARED began like any other Saturday. Marlene put a long coat over her housedress and dragged Tabitha to Honest Ed’s.
What do You think about Vanishing And Other Stories?
