| "The Fringe" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Orson Scott Card |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Media type | Print (Magazine) |
| Publication date | 1985 |
"The Fringe" is a short story by Orson Scott Card. It appears in his short story collection The Folk of the Fringe and in Future on Ice a short story collection edited by card. Card originally published this story in the October 1985 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Contents |
In a post-apocalyptic America Timothy Carpenter is a wheelchair-using teacher in a small farming community. When he discovers that the farm foreman, the bishop and some other men are stealing food from the other farmers he reports this to the authorities. On the day that the marshals are scheduled to show up he talks to his students about how wrong it is for people to steal. After class is over the son of the foreman threatens Mr. Carpenter and tells him to keep his mouth shut. Later that day the authorities show up and arrest the thieves. An hour later their sons show up at Mr. Carpenter's house and take him out to a dry riverbed that will flood with the coming rain and dump him into it so that he will drown. Just as he is about to drown he is rescued by a group from a traveling pageant show. When the police show up at his house Mr. Carpenter refuses to name the boys who attacked him because he feels sorry for their families. However, when he sees them in school the next day they behave.
After Mr. Carpenter is rescued from drowning he learns that the acting group that saved him is called the "Sweetwater Miracle Pageant". The story "Pageant Wagon" by Orson Scott Card is about how a young man named Deaver Teague meet us with and joins that same group. Mr. Carpenter is the narrator of the story "America". In that story he tells about how the governor of Deseret, Sam Monson, met and had a baby with an Native American woman when he was a teenager.
As with many of Card's other literature, a Christian/Mormon influence is present in this story.
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