The Best Short Story of 2014

It’s one of the best things I’ve read in years: The Halfway Café. It’s a quick read so there’s no excuse not to give it a try. You must read it! I was very moved by it. I was actually moved to forgive someone who did terrible things to me, someone I’ve been trying to forgive for years. I was about to write him but then I realized he’s still a terrible person and I should forgive him in my heart but not re-establish contact.

Why I took a picture of a pay phone. Because 1, it just appeared out of the blue. I didn’t even know new pay phones were being installed anymore. And 2, it’s not new. Someone installed an old, unclean, used pay phone. It’s just odd.

PayPhone

Stacy Horn

I've written six non-fiction books, the most recent is Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York.

View all posts by Stacy Horn →

3 thoughts on “The Best Short Story of 2014

  1. I wonder if the phone even works. I went to the URL on the top – “streetmessages dot com” and it is about advertising only.

    Forgiveness is an interesting thing, isn’t it. It’s very much the same (if not identical) to the Buddhist idea of attachments. Let go of those things you are hanging onto, and you become free.

  2. I like the way the shape of the phone enclosure sort of mimics the shape of the blue panel on the wall.

  3. Julia, exactly. It’s about being truly free. It’s almost a selfish thing, because the person who benefits the most from your forgiveness is YOU.

    Nora: totally not on purpose. I wish I could say it was.

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