【英文短篇小说】The Case of the Bloodless Sock（1）

There had been no cases of any interest for some weeks, and my friend Sherlock Holmes was bored by the trivia that came his way. His temper showed it to the degree where I was happy to accept an invitation from an old friend, Robert Hunt, a widower w

【英文短篇小说】The Coming of Mr. Quin（2）

Sitting well back in his chair, secure in his role of audience, Mr. Satterthwaite watched the drama unfold before his eyes Quietly and naturally, Mr. Quin was pulling the strings, setting his puppets in motion. A woman--yes, he murmured thoughtfully.

【英文短篇小说】The Coming of Mr. Quin（1）

It was New Year's Eve. The elder members of the house party at Royston were assembled in the big hall. Mr. Satterthwaite was glad that the young people had gone to bed. He was not fond of young people in herds. He thought them uninteresting and crude

【英文短篇小说】The Flying Santinis

Italo waved his left hand and the irritating drumming stopped. He took a long breath and closed his eyes. When I saw him standing tensely on the little wooden platform, wearing his glittering costume, almost touching the canvas ceiling of the tent, e

【英文短篇小说】Breaking the Pig

Dad wouldnt buy me a Bart Simpson doll. Mum actually said yes, but Dad said I was spoiled. Why should we, eh? he said to Mum. Why should we buy him one? All it takes is one little squeak from him and you jump to attention. Dad said I had no respect f

【英文短篇小说】A Souvenir of Hell

Theres this village in Uzbekistan that was built right smack at the mouth of Hell. The soil there isnt any good for farming, and the minerals arent too great either, so whatever small income the inhabitants can earn to make ends meet comes mostly fro

【英文短篇小说】Hole in the Wall

On Bernadotte Avenue, right next to the Central Bus Station, theres a hole in the wall. There used to be an ATM there once, but it broke or something, or else nobody ever used it, so the people from the bank came in a pickup and took it, and never br

【英文短篇小说】Goodman

About six months ago, in this armpit town outside Austin, Texas, Mickey Goodman of Tel Aviv killed a seventy-year-old minister and his wife. Goodman shot them in their sleep at point-blank range. To this day nobody knows how he got into the apartment

【英文短篇小说】The Story About a Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God（1）

This is the story about a bus driver who would never open the door of the bus for people who were late. Not for anyone. Not for repressed high school kids whod run alongside the bus and stare at it longingly, and certainly not for high-strung people

【英文短篇小说】Tobermory

It was a chill, rain-washed afternoon of a late August day, that indefinite season when partridges are still in security or cold storage, and there is nothing to hunt--unless one is bounded on the north by the Bristol Channel, in which case one may l

【英文短篇小说】The Story-Teller

IT was a hot afternoon, and the railway carriage was correspondingly sultry, and the next stop was at Templecombe, nearly an hour ahead. The occupants of the carriage were a small girl, and a smaller girl, and a small boy. An aunt belonging to the ch

【英文短篇小说】Korbi’s Girl

Korbi was a punk like all punks. The kind that you dont know whether theyre uglier or stupider. And like all punks he had a beautiful girlfriend, who no one could understand what she was doing with him. She was a tall brunette, taller than him, and h

【英文短篇小说】MINISTERIAL AID

The Millennium: January 1, 20006:20 A.M. I was driving south on I-25 and kept sneaking glances through my half-closed eyes in hopes of seeing those first, dull, yellow rays of daylight crawling up from the horizon. My county in northern Wyoming is ap

【英文短篇小说】Philomel Cottage（2）

It was not until after their simple evening meal, when they were sitting in the oak-benched living-room with the windows thrown open to let in the sweet night air scented with the perfume of the mauve and white stocks outside, that Alix remembered th

【英文短篇小说】Philomel Cottage（1）

Goodbye, darling. Goodbye, sweetheart. Alix Martin stood leaning over the small rustic gate, watching the retreating figure of her husband as he walked down the road in the direction of the village. Presently he turned a bend and was lost to sight, b

【英文短篇小说】Emergency

I'd been working in the emergency room for about three weeks, I guess. This was in 1973, before the summer ended. With nothing to do on the overnight shift but batch the insurance reports from the daytime shifts, I just started wandering around, over

【英文短篇小说】Car Crash While Hitchhiking

Class again. Living with Lit was doing a composition, and most of them were bent sweatily over their papers, putting their thoughts grimly down on the page, as if chopping wood. All but three. Robert Lawson, sitting in Billy Stearns's seat, David Gar

【英文短篇小说】SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK（2）

Jim? Hmmm? Is something wrong? No. Those Living with Lit boys still giving you a hard time? No answer. Jim? No. Why don't you go to bed early tonight? But he didn't. The dream was very bad that night. When the kid with the strawberry birthmark stabbe

【英文短篇小说】SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK（1）

SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK Jim Norman's wife had been waiting for him since two, and when she saw the car pull up in front of their apartment building, she came out to meet him. She had gone to the store and bought a celebration meala couple of steaks,

【英文短篇小说】The Window of Time

THE WINDOW OF TIME Let me say, at the outset, that I dont blame my daughter for what happened. Actually, blame is too critical a word. What I mean to say is that my daughter was hardly responsible for what happened. Miriam is a good soul, a benevolen