SHORT STORY MONTH
The story, "My Summer Vacation," by Steven J. McDermott, was originally published in Carve Magazine and can now be found in McDermott's collection, Winter of Different Directions (Storyglossia Press, 2007).
It's the story of Paul, a programmer for Microsoft, who is reaching the level of burnout. At the same time he's just found out his stock options taken are about to make him another of those Microsoft Millionaires, as he'll be worth just slightly under 1.5 million dollars. While this might make one think it would be difficult to feel sorry for such a protagonist and his woes, McDermott does some very fine writing.
He includes three scenes in the story that alleviate this problem, which helps him to allow the reader to move past this potential prejudice and get to the true gist of the story:
A) While Paul is having a problem de-bugging a program,he overhears his co-workers talking, in the hallway outside his office, about going out to see a movie:
" -- Should we ask Paul?
-- What for? He's never gone before.
-- There's already five of us. The car's full.
-- Okay, let's book.
As I watch in the mirror they flash by the office door and then are gone down the hallway, laughter echoing. I swivel my chair around, stare at my mountain bike propped between the futon and the desk."
This is followed up later in the story with b and c, two scenes after Paul and his bosses have agreed some time off will do wonders for him. He's travelled to southern California and in the first of the two instances, meets up with a streetcorner singer, a female, who begins chatting him up, looking for a little donation. In what seems a fairly innocent banter, Paul ends up panicking and being completely embarrassed and walking away from the singer, and a small crowd of people, most of whom were laughing at him. The final scene included Paul being caught staring at a female roller skater, dressed in short shorts and a bikini top. He tries a little small talk about which she accuses him of pick-up lines. He is again flustered quickly, walking away to her laughter.
With each of these incidents, McDermott allows Paul to become a little more sympathetic to we, the readers. It gives us a little more reason to care about this 27 year old millionaire and his problems. All of which allows the second half of the story to be of great interest.
This usage of these scenes is a nice, subtle touch, showing that this work is coming from an excellent writer.
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