My Petition For More Space by John Hersey

Author:John Hersey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2019-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

STRANGE THAT I should have imagined the leaves on the maples in the Green whispering, ‘Forest, forest, brother leaf!’ For two generations there has been no such thing as a brother—or a sister. One child only, if any, to a family. My ideas of fraternity—like those of peasantry, royalty, slavery—are all literary. I have a peculiar bookish fantasy now, that the janitor and I are brothers. We are brothers in a brief passage on the bitter side of our tie. Without himself having any real interest in the girl, he resents my whispering with her. For my part I have a brother’s dismay at seeing in him traits that are also surely mine; I want them not.

In my imagination: I am the older brother. Perhaps mimicking my father, I have tried to teach him to play chess, but the first time I checked his king he lost his temper and knocked over the board.

In my imagination: His name is Cain. My flesh creeps.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.