fwriction

During this final week of 2010, each day I will be picking a favorite from all the story of the day pieces thus far. Now, granted, since I’ve personally chosen every story of the day, they’re all my favorites. However, since I cannot showcase each one this week, I’ve had some fun in going through all of them once again to choose five that really stuck to my bones.

The first “Best of Story of the Day” is Laura van den Berg’s story, “Up High in the Air.” Hope you enjoy this piece, and while you’re at it, check out van den Berg’s collection, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us. Boxing Day boosh!

That night I dreamed there was a heat wave so intense, the mayor ordered all the city’s residents to take refuge in Lake Michigan. Soon the lake was packed with bodies. The water was hot. We bobbed there for weeks, all of us, even after our skin wrinkled and peeled. Then one day I looked across the lake, and everyone was gone except for some single, distant person—so far the face was a grey smudge. I felt something like relief, like recognition, and started to swim. Each time I thought I’d reached him, it was only a dark spot on the water.