Nouvelles/Short Stories

The Monkey / Le Singe The story centers on a cymbal-banging monkey toy that is possessed by an evil spirit. Every time the monkey claps its little cymbals together, a nearby living thing dies. The monkey is found in a family's attic in an old toy chest by a group of children, unknowing that their father was tormented by the monkey years ago, when it worked its lethal magic on his family and friends. The father takes the monkey, rows out to the deepest part of the lake, and throws it down. At the end of the story is an excerpt of a newspaper article, which talks about hundreds of dead fish floating in the lake. Mrs. Todd's Shortcut / Le Racciuri De Mme Todd. The story is detailed to a friend of Homer, an older man who likes splendid time at the gas station. The plot concerns Mrs. Todd, who is obsessed with finding shortcuts. Homer admires her persistence but begins to have doubts, as there are only so many shortcuts someone can find. Mrs. Todd's habit of resetting her odometer shows remarkable evidence that something weird is going on. He also discovers evidence that her shortcuts are using up less miles than are in a straight line from one destination to another; something that would be impossible anyway. Mrs. Todd compares the shortcuts to folding a map, suggesting she has discovered a warped version of reality, like a worm hole. Mrs. Todd finally convinces Homer to take one of the special 'shortcuts'. Homer loses his hat to the grasping arms of a tree and sees road signs and strange, unnatural animals that he cannot explain. Frightened, Homer does not wish to take any more rides. Nonetheless, Mrs. Todd is changing and growing younger with each trip she takes, and the appeal of this overwhelms Homer, despite his having found a smashed, horrifying rodent-like creature on the grill of her car. She brushes this off, seeing the creature as an unfortunate yet normal animal.