A drug addicted, Gulf War vet/amputee is trapped in an attic during Hurricane Katrina.
(from Best American Short Stories 2009)
He sees gray light squeezing through rippage in the curling tarpaper lining the inside of this well-built roof. Wood is bare, creosoted here and there, but no paint.
Yeah, that summary is a handful, but this is actually not a heavy-handed or melodramatic story. It’s kinda simple and brilliant and weird. Wait, what?! Is this the same Steve De Jarnatt who wrote Strange Brew? And the guy who wrote Strange Brew directed Cherry 2000? Turns out yes. Dude just got his MFA from Antioch. This is his first published short story. And, I believe, the only link between the Best American series and Bob and Doug McKenzie.
I just read this story last night and it knocked the wind out of me. I thought it was the best story in the collection, and this from someone who had never published fiction before!