Finished this issue, and the last story is worth remarking upon. Properties of Storm for Healing by Doug Crandall is another take on the father/son relationship–oddly there are at least three of them in this issue–that employs good writing, action, and character development.
The base is the same, loving fathers who cannot communicate with their children. And the opening of the son coming home for his father’s funeral and leaving with a new level of understanding is certainly not original, but the handling of it made the story a page-turner. A tornado, a dopey hound dog, a change in gravesite, an old man missing his nose, add interest and action. The realization of the relationship comes not merely through the cliched photos on the wall of him as a child, but through the discovery of his father’s cabin; he has proudly built himself one just like it in another state without ever knowing of his father’s. And, through a dog that easily transfers his loyalties to his dead master’s son.
There is a subtlety that tells us that there is good in everyone, that there are things shared that become common ground. A fine story to end this anthology.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology