The Old Screen Door

Bob Clegg is an ordinary hard-working guy; a roadwork boss with an amputated left forearm and a limp from a motorcycle crash; a middle-aged guy who's in love with a young waitress named Jackie. It's all very simple and matter-of-fact. Until one day she invites him to her place for a beer. After talking for a while in the outside Sun she excuses herself and goes into the house, where the old screen door bangs closed behind her. He waits patiently but a sudden loneliness and longing to reveal his feelings impel him towards the house and the old screen door which hangs askew, imperfectly closed. Nearing the old door he sees her through the screen tidying the kitchen. But it's not her, it's a deep and ancient creature, her soul perhaps, ministering like a priestess in an ancient temple. Bob is struck dumb, palsied by a sudden debilitating shyness. When at last she sees him standing mute on the other side of the screen, he mumbles a tense and hurried goodbye. For days he suffers the memory of that strange creature...until the story's end...where Bob Clegg, the hard-working man, secretly repairs the old screen door.

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