Apex Publications discussion

Tim has written a story with an unlikable narrator who lives a terrible, bleak, miserable world. You'd think that I'd be hating this story, but I didn't. He made me love it.

In the world that Tim created in this story, it would be so easy for people to lose all faith. It would be easy to be like the narrator and want to exact revenge, but the foreign woman was the saving grace. I want to know more about her story. How did she know where all of the traps were? How was she able to keep a positive outlook on the world when it's obvious that she also has gone through terrible things, just like the narrator? What gave her the faith in humanity that would be needed to spread the wishflowers everywhere? She was able to save the narrator with her faith.

I agree I would have loved to see more about this woman, but I think the story wouldn't have been quite as powerful. I think keeping her reasons hidden showed how just because we don't know the answer doesn't mean we shouldn't believe. We, as the reader, had faith in her faith and so found her character and story believable.

Also just the idea of having access to all those wishflowers. Can you just imagine the possibilies? I want one, or two, or three, or four....

The stories in this anthology continue to impress me.

The difference between the narrator and the woman is that she still had faith in humanity. He didn't. Despite their similar experiences. This woman, who the narrator dismissed as a dumb foreigner saved him even though he didn't deserve it; an act of mercy the narrator couldn't possibly have understood even though he benefited from it.

You asked: "What gave her the faith in humanity..." but the author doesn't tell us. I agree with Dawn that it is better that way. There is a line during a Catholic mass which states: "let us proclaim the mystery of faith". True faith is a mystery and the author didn't spoil it by telling us too much about the woman.