Housesitter
‘Housesitter’
7,500 words
.The thunder was like the constant rumbling of a heavy freight train
across the arch of the nght sky, and the lightning was so bright
and continuous that the rain-lashed garden had no chance to get
dark before the next flash lit itup again.
As George Orwell once wrote about Charles Dickens: ‘. . .
you can only create if you can care” (from The Lion and the
Unicorn, 1941). James White really did care about ‘The
Housesitter’ – his last short story, and one of his
very best. It also undercuts those critics who have condemned
his work for showing too much sentiment and not enough strength.
Jim tried to exorcize the most awful hurt any parent can suffer
with a sympathetic word-spell. The stronger the sunshine,
the deeper the shadows.
Synopsis by Graham Andrews |
First Publication: |
- The White Papers, Nesfa Press, September 1996
|
|