Liberation Day: Stories

The narrator hopes to purchase a large, estate-style house owned by Mel Hays. When the narrator tours the house, he falls in love with it, thinking that it is the type of place in which he has always dreamt of living. Mel Hays describes some issues with the house, including cracks in the basement and an overgrown, unkept fruit orchard. The narrator learns that Mel Hays’s wife is ill and confined to a bedroom; Hays is unable to maintain the large, old estate. During this tour, the narrator thinks about how much he enjoys Hays’s company and hopes to become friends after the sale of the house. However, when Hays suggest that he might stay over in the guest room after the sale, the narrator is taken aback, but he agrees anyway. After, the narrator puts an offer in on the house, above the asking price. To his surprise, Hays declines the offer and takes the house off the market.

The narrator becomes fixated on buying the house. He hears that Hays’s wife dies, and he writes Hays a condolence letter which Hays ignores. Sometimes, the narrator sees an upstairs light on in the house, and he wonders why Hays refuses to sell. As time passes, the house begins to decay. Soon, the porch is overgrown and eventually collapses; the narrator still dreams about saving the house and restoring it to its former glory.

The narrator is himself getting old, but he remains obsessed with the house. He sends Hays two more letters, in which he is increasingly angry at Hays’s rudeness and refusal to reply. He contemplates sending Hays a death threat but decides against it. Over time, the narrator becomes ill and realizes that his life is coming to an end. He still obsesses about the house and thinks about the short amount of time he could still spend there before his death. The narrator thinks about the final letter that he will send Hays before he dies, which will be an apology for his obsession over the house and a lament on his fear of his imminent death.