"Across the Bay."
An examination of post-war sexual attitudes, strong in both atmosphere and characterization, and similar in theme to the 1951 novella The Grass God. A vacationing veteran becomes involved with a young French woman, only to learn that the "father" who joins her each weekend is in fact maintaining her as his lover. The tense and touching involvement of the two young lovers is effectively counterbalanced by the soldier's comically mundane table partners. In Argosy (November 1952), The Daffodil Sky (1955), Seven by Five/The Best of H.E. Bates (1963).
Online Full Text at Hathi Trust Digital Library.
ID:
b201
Title:
"Across the Bay"
Genre:
Story
Page Count:
31
Word Count:
ca. 8740
Publisher:
Argosy
Publication Date:
1952
Topic:
Love triangle
Sexual issues
Document Type:
Full-text Online
A story of shattered hopes
A story of shattered hopes and dreams. Harris the veteran is penniless,but still hoping to build a future.Yvonne whom he meets at the seaside was married for a few days,but had lost her husband in the war.She saw her husband's image in Harris. Would they have a life together-a future? Perhaps they would have-but for the canker within -as yet unknown.The "father" who comes down every weekend was not her father! Harris' and Yvonne's dreams for the future are eaten by the "canker".The image of the maggot in the peach is cleverly used to signify this.
Another story of lonely hearts coming together, and the inevitable parting left unmentioned. babu thomas