"Last Call For A Loner," by Tom Sheehan

The mystique of traditional story telling offers a look through the amber of the frozen, inexplicable moment. A stranger hitchhiking; he’s a loner without place or connection and accepts a ride from a driver of a rig who offers an invitation to his home. Serendipity enters, and by coincidence the loner and the driver’s father find a connection. There are details here about pervasive loneliness that strike a chord beyond the story. The descriptions are mesmerizing like this one: (he) “…felt again that unknown sweep of energy come across his chest …making him think he was in a kind of wind tunnel.” The ending satisfies like a tale well told and must be read entirely to appreciate the spoiler that will not be revealed, here at Serving House Journal.

"The Stranger Room," by Susan Tekulve

This story takes place somewhere in the South, in coal country in 1963. It’s a rugged place where the people who are deeply tied to the animals and nature outlive the defeated plans of big money dreams of coal company operators. My reading recalled the setting and tone of an early novel, Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller, the 1933 novel that in the following year was awarded the Pulitzer, a first for a Georgia writer. A pregnant teenager in both stories is portrayed with the manners and bravery of her culture and both works are written with a definitive voice of authority. Read the short story here in Serving House Journal.