THE MAKE-BELIEVE MAN

Norma Hovic is recently widowed and living with her 11-year-old son in her mother’s house. When her mother leaves to stay with Norma’s sister, who is expecting, Norma is at first pleased to have the house to herself. But then Cliff appears. Cliff had been her mother’s roomer until Norma came to live with her. She had heard all about Cliff. But the Cliff who shows up at her doorstep is another matter altogether. There is something not quite right here. This Cliff makes her nervous. His face is wounded and he keeps babbling about a man he had worked for who had humiliated him. He almost seems to resent Norma’s presence here. And that’s when he tells her that he wants to stay…

A FRIEND OF MARY ROSE

Mr. Nicholas is 83 and blind, living with his son and daughter-in-law in a neighborhood which has seen better days. In fact, today the family is moving. But Mr. Nicholas is afraid that his personal trunks will be left behind. So, after spending the day at Mrs. Thompson’s house next door while the movers are at work, he sneaks back into his house at night to make sure the movers took them. But he discovers instead a young girl being hunted in the attic by a drunken letch of a man. Mr. Nicholas has never paid much attention to his neighbors before. He has no idea who the young girl could be. All she tells him is that her name is Mary Rose. Now they are locked in a dark room together, being hunted by someone who is an even greater mystery…