Short Story of the Week
My Superstitions Are Your Inheritance, Esther Hayes (2024)
Each week, I’m selecting a short story to share with you. No more than 15 or so pages, each think of them as bite-sized entrées into a genre, author, or style.
This enters that rare canon of ‘fiction written in the second person’. When I think about this form, it’s immediately Lorrie Moore that jumps to mind. In her work you get a sense that the ‘you’ the characters are addressing could actually possibly be the ‘you’ reading the work. However, this is different. The ‘you’ in Hayes’ story is clearly defined – the protagonist’s absent baby. That in and of itself makes this an interesting read.