Raymond Carver, "Dreams"

A quiet, peaceful neighborhood is shaken tragic fire.

(from Call If You Need Me)

A simple, quiet, sparsely decorated little story. I haven't read a lot of Carver, but I've seen Short Cuts once or twice — props to Huey Lewis but I think it was the first time I realized I don't care for Andie McDowell — so I was expecting someone to do something horrible every time I turned the page. But "Dreams," with its gentle poignancy and flaming asexuality, would have no place in Short Cuts. A fine read though. You don't always need to have a scene where Huey Lewis pees on a corpse.
(Yeah, I took the picture.)