Book 6 – RUNAWAY by Alice Munro

This is the first fictional book I have read since in Mozambique and I think I chose well. Alice Munro has been multiple awards, and she grew up in good old Ontario, Canada.

Her book is collection of 8 short stories unlike any other book I have read before. Although each short story isn`t a direct continuation of the previous, they often share a character later on in their life.

There is one lesson I would like to share with you from one of the short stories. There is a woman named Robin. She lives in a small town. One day she visits the big city (Toronto) and becomes stranded with no money or way to get back home. She meets a man named Danilo who helps her, feeding her, and giving her enough money to get back home. As he says goodbye to her they embrace in a passionate kiss. She along with her heart melts in his arms. He bids her farewell and tells her not to call or write, but, if she feels the same way he does, return next summer at the same time and he will be there ready to receive her.

She thinks of nothing else but him for an entire year. The day approaches and she can hardly breathe she is so anxious. She prepares her hair just the way he likes it, and wears the same dress he saw her in last hoping to rekindle the same emotions.
She approaches his store where he works. “He was there, in the work space beyond the counter, busy under a single bulb. He was bent forward, seen in profile, engrossed in the work he was doing on a clock…An expression on his face of concentration, keenness, perfect appreciation of whatever he was doing…She called to him. Danilo…He had not heard…Then he did look up, but not at her—he appeared to be searching for something he needed at the moment. But in raising his eyes he caught sight of her. He carefully moved something out of his way, pushed back from the worktable, stood up, came reluctantly towards her. He shook he is head at her slightly. Her hand was ready to push the door open, but she did not do it. She waited for him to speak, but he did not. He shook his head again. He was perturbed. He stood still. He looked away from her…Now he came towards her again, as if he had made up his mind what to do. Not looking at her anymore, but acting with determination and—so it seemed to her—revulsion, he put a hand against the wooden door, the shop door which stood open, and pushed it shut in her face.”

She left the store weeping and managed to drag herself back to her small town and into her room to crawl up in a ball and cry herself to sleep.

Some forty years later, she is working as a nurse in a hospital which is overcrowded. Three cots are lined up against the wall. One of them has a body, worn down, legs almost disappearing under the covers. The card attached to the foot of his bed reads Danilo.

She later finds out that Danilo had a twin brother who had “…been deaf-mute since birth…” The man in the store that ignored her was not Danilo, it was his twin brother Alexander.

The moral of this story is don’t make assumptions, ask questions, inquire, second guess, double check, get a second opinion, check your sources, ask your parents, shoot…ask me even, …. Audit baby!!!!

[Disclaimer: This is not intended to be an accurate reproduction of any book written by Alice Munro]

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Runaway-Alice-Munro/dp/0099472252)