I did enjoy this short story by Paul Crenshaw, both for its story and for the writing style.
In the setting of an insane asylum (sorry, mental institution) it opens with the first person narrator retelling a story a fellow employee has told him about a girl who blew her mind on an acid trip and is silent and uncommunicative on the twelfth floor of one of the buildings. Through the interaction of the narrator and the other employee, Burke, as well as the conflict brought into the story by one of the inmates, an ex-fighter named Ray who’s suffered one too many blows to the brain, we get an idea of the narrator’s sense of caring. We become curious about his backstory, of which Crenshaw gives us only subtle hints that lead us to believe he’s been hurt emotionally in some way.
The twist at the end is a surprise that answers many questions without being an Ahah! type of arrangement that usually leaves the reader feeling tricked and foolish. This was very well done, from beginning to end in a graceful arc, minor conflicts both between characters and the element of nature–snow storms, electricity, and a gradual building up of tension that we feel more as the characters develop because they are real and worthy of empathy. Nice work here.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology