Posts by Zareen Hassan
The doppelgänger
On a windy day, Lisa was walking down the road to the grocery store, thrilled and excited as it was her favorite time of the year, Spring. Lisa was a twenty-five year old independent girl, living in an apartment she had inherited from her father. She had lost both her…
Attachment
In extreme emotional pain, she thought of all the days that had passed by. Did he not even think once before leaving? This was the question crossing her mind, every now and then, as she sat up on her bed and then lay down again. Finally, she mustered up the…
The Selfish Giant
Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant’s garden. It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke…
A Chameleon
The police superintendent Otchumyelov is walking across the market square wearing a new overcoat and carrying a parcel under his arm. A red-haired policeman strides after him with a sieve full of confiscated gooseberries in his hands. There is silence all around. Not a soul in the square and air…
The Laughing Hippopotamus
On one of the upper branches of the Congo river lived an ancient and aristocratic family of hippopotamuses, which boasted a pedigree dating back beyond the days of Noah–beyond the existence of mankind–far into the dim ages when the world was new. They had always lived upon the banks of…
The Necklace
The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let…
The Mockingbird
The time, a pleasant Sunday afternoon in the early autumn of 1861. The place, a forest’s heart in the mountain region of southwestern Virginia. Private Grayrock of the Federal Army is discovered seated comfortably at the root of a great pine tree, against which he leans, his legs extended straight…
The Cripple
The following adventure happened to me about 1882. I had just taken the train and settled down in a corner, hoping that I should be left alone, when the door suddenly opened again and I heard a voice say: “Take care, monsieur, we are just at a crossing; the step…
About Love
AT lunch next day there were very nice pies, crayfish, and mutton cutlets; and while we were eating, Nikanor, the cook, came up to ask what the visitors would like for dinner. He was a man of medium height, with a puffy face and little eyes; he was close-shaven, and…
