Intensive Care (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Lee Smith
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: 1988
- Setting: Greenwood, Mississippi
- Principal Characters: Harold Stikes, Joan Berry Stikes, Cherry (Doris Christine) Oxendine Westall Palladino Stikes, Lois Hickey
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Husbands, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Wives, Love or romance, Twentieth century, Space ships, stations, or vehicles, 1980’s, Cancer, Adultery, Mississippi, Food, Small-town life, Business or business people, Popular culture, Gossip, Hospitals, Grocery trade, Hairdressing or hairdressers
- Locales: Mississippi
The Story
“Intensive Care” is told by a gossipy omniscient narrator partly through flashbacks. The story begins in the Beauty Nook, where several women are having their hair styled and listening to the details from head nurse Lois Hickey about how Cherry Oxendine Westall Palladino Stikes is dying in intensive care. In the women's self-righteous view, Harold Stikes is getting just what he deserves for deserting his wife and children to marry Cherry.
The next scene shows Harold Stikes leaving the hospital, where he has been visiting Cherry, and driving indiscreetly to...
[The entire page is 1364 words long]
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