The Cliff (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Baxter
- First Published: 1984
- Type of Plot: Fable
- Time of Work: The 1970's
- Setting: The California coast
- Principal Characters: The old man, The boy
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Tradition, Magic or magicians, Power, personal or social, California, West, U.S., Drinking or drunkenness, Flight, Beaches or seashores, Old age or elderly people, Ocean, Rope, Pleasure
- Locales: California
The Story
A young boy is being driven to a cliff at an unspecified location on the California coastline. The driver, a cantankerous old man, interrogates the boy en route, suspicious of his experience with women, how well he has memorized the old man's instructions, his moral, spiritual, and emotional purity, and his impatience to get started with the initiation into what the old man calls “the spells.” Noting the old man's incessant coughing and smoking, his occasional hits from the wine bottle stashed under his seat, and his irritability in general, the boy wonders aloud...
[The entire page is 1375 words long]
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