The Long and the short

The long and the short about "The Long and the short:"

Entering any story for the first time is like walking through a doorway into a place you never knew existed. No matter its length, the world of the short story — when done right — provides a traveler with a visit that feels too short, though is really just right.

Inside this book you’ll visit old farms, suburban homes, laboratories of the future, familiar neighborhoods just like the one where your funny aunt lives.You’ll walk the hot fields of the deep south, frozen cabins in the far north, the war-torn deserts of Iraq and the cool shadows of Venice. If you’re going to take short trips, why repeat locales?

Here are a few doors:

—Then It Was:
“He didn’t die, he said.”
“What do you mean he didn’t die?”

—In Defense of Mom:
“I never thought it was an accident, although it’s true the brakes weren’t really all that good.”

—The Homecoming of Cousin Charlie:
The afternoon crackled with bastards and bitches.

—Waltz by Cricket, Song of Knave:
While the white big moon smiles in a blue blue night, and a cricket on the brickwork sings and plays, and so on and so on, Candace naked on the balcony combs her pubic hair with a tortoise shell comb.

—Surah’s Well:
Corsey’d been the one who’d asked, "What you think a raghead thinks right when you shoot him?"

—The Aliens Will Win:
It begins simply enough. Tomatoes start coming through the ceiling, armed with electric arrows that shoot out of their hands.

—An End to End All Ends:
I had repaired to my cabin on Kootenay Lake to get apart from everyone, from all the fuss, for I had been so unfortunate as to win a Nobel.