www.storymania.com
Storymania Logo

 

 

Short Stories




Fear And Obsession by Winson Thai When college senior Rachel learns her best friend forever Hanna is abusing her boyfriend Lin... [13,545 words]
The Rescue Of Anne Frank by Nathaniel A Miller A team goes into the past to modify and change the timestream for a better future. Wr... [2,637 words]
The Last Starfighter 2:Rtl by Nathaniel A Miller Concept Story / Sequel to the original film, Working title, Rebuilding the Legion [8,803 words]
Yamato - Episode 4 by Nathaniel A Miller Based on the the Series Yamato and sequel to the "Final Yamato Movie" Part Four of Seven in ... [20,507 words]
Yamato - Episode 3 by Nathaniel A Miller Based on the the Series Yamato and sequel to the "Final Yamato Movie" Part Three of Seven in... [28,409 words]
Yamato - Episode 2 by Nathaniel A Miller Based on the the Series Yamato and sequel to the "Final Yamato Movie" Part Two of Seven in M... [24,642 words]
Yamato - Episode 1 by Nathaniel A Miller Based on the the Series Yamato and sequel to the "Final Yamato Movie" Part one of Seven in M... [23,227 words]
The Love Of Milana And Yuliya by Winson Thai Following the romance of two, later four young lesbian friends [5,920 words]
Anna And Yana's Cruise by Winson Thai Two, later three, women finding love aboard a ship [4,014 words]
The Lesbian Triangle Of Charlie, Priscilla, And Morgan by Winson Thai Following the love lives of three women who dream of bei... [1,931 words]
My First Lesbian Experience by Winson Thai A young woman in trouble with the law gets a big offer from a female police officer... [520 words]
Lesbian Sisters by Winson Thai Two lesbian sisters deciding to practice sex with each other until they can find partners [523 words]
Timmy Swanson: Isis The Next Generation by Nathaniel A Miller Contest Entry, writing.com, after an assault of a Teen boy by his peers... [2,632 words]
The Containers Of Grimm by Nathaniel A Miller Plague races across the Earth and the only way is to isolate victims using a new techno... [1,434 words]
The House In The Woods by Nathaniel A Miller How a string of simple lights lure the unsuspecting into the woods to a sinister evil. ... [2,021 words]
Spider Kiss: by Nathaniel A Miller A piece based on "The Muse" Photo on Writing.com Picture story contest. A Teen who changes into a... [2,406 words]
Rose Snow: Space Explorer by Nathaniel A Miller A reunion between a father and daughter becomes a harsh choice for the father of what... [1,811 words]
The Assassination Factor by Nathaniel A Miller How a team modifies past to stop harm in the future, but not without a price of existe... [12,081 words]
Yiska Waits For A Bus. by Terry Collett - [908 words]
Under The Bed. by Terry Collett - [613 words]
The Foundry Of Tomorrow by Nathaniel A Miller A science fiction piece about evolution of a machine after centuries alone. Written in... [2,446 words]
The Black Gazelle by Boris Sudarushkin - [2,662 words]
Lizbeth's Empty Feeling. by Terry Collett - [708 words]
Lizbeth And 1960 And Frustration. by Terry Collett - [874 words]
Waiting For Janice In 1957 by Terry Collett - [902 words]
The Open Window
Sophie's Last Walk by Joy Oakey A man and his elderly dog near the end of her life [1,074 words]
The Foolish Donkey by Ghorpade Umeshkumar - [218 words]
Titan Of The Sea by Xie When war breaks out, the ancestors of the star spirits are not pleased. Can they stop the grue... [385 words]
Nindroids, The Battle With The Digital Overlord by Xie The ninja are caught. They escape, but you won't believe who ca... [967 words]
Kiinaq's Dictionary by Xie A dictionary for words in my books. [44 words]
Julie by G Geoffrey Conwill Reporter goes fishing and has a near encounter with a marine mystery. [2,288 words]
The House On Ss Street by Tiffany Brown what do we know about a house who use to live thier what went on in n the house well som... [1,084 words]
The Guardian Angel by Michael Vincent A Guardian Angel tells a story. [1,034 words]
Raincoat For Peter by Demarquis Johnson This is the story of a boy name Willy. He has been waiting for a rainy day to wear his new y... [136 words]
Famous 6 by Chitrali Ghatak ABOUT THE ADVENTURE OF A GROUP OF KIDS [1,062 words]
An Unexpected Friendship by Shenita Etwaroo Fiction For Children [785 words]
Vacant Life by Violet E Krause miles is a young writter about to start is senior year in highschool. miles is born and raised in t... [2,034 words]
The First Step To Wilting by Wilted Rose A narrative of how first memories can affect someone. An explanation of what memories... [1,036 words]
Our Parrot Scared The Burglar by Amarjit Bhambra I can imagine at it happened and find it quite funny as to how he must have ran o... [454 words]
Lizbeth And Tomorrow by Terry Collett - [1,049 words]
Jack Is Back Again by Trw W written late at night with a lot on my mind. about a man who.. well i don't really know. i j... [415 words]
Elaine Loses Nerve. by Terry Collett - [1,554 words]
Buddy by Waleed Khan - [685 words]
Alice And The Lady's Maid. by Terry Collett - [1,334 words]
'twisted by Kennedy O Obohwemu Before things went sour, he needed a minor miracle. Now he needs the Red Sea to part. http://wp.me/P3Z... [334 words]
Scared Looks And Soft Moans. by Terry Collett - [1,249 words]
Lizbeth's Fourth Visit. by Terry Collett - [1,179 words]
Letting Go Of God by Julia Sweeney - [1,703 words]
John Muses On A Kiss. by Terry Collett - [1,091 words]
Anne's Audition. by Terry Collett - [1,374 words]
A New London Christmas Carol by Anthony Maulucci Anthony Maulucci Writing As Charles Dickinson Ebenezer Scrooge goes to New London, Connecticut in pursuit of foreclosed houses a... [1,944 words]
To The Pool With Benedict. by Terry Collett - [1,307 words]
Stranger Than Fiction by Fatima Hussain Mehdi Life story of a bipolar disorder patient. [3,391 words]
Lizbeth Pretends by Terry Collett - [1,051 words]
It Isn't A Dream. by Terry Collett - [1,285 words]
Ingrid's Picnic by Terry Collett - [1,426 words]
Ingrid And Bees Humming. by Terry Collett - [962 words]
Hello Stranger by G - [236 words]
He And She And Another Date by Terry Collett - [1,340 words]
Elaine And The Kiss. by Terry Collett - [1,115 words]
Atu Ep.3 by Rube Alpha Terran Unit episode 3 [9,516 words]
Atu Ep.2 by Rube the second episode of Alpha Terran Unit [10,782 words]
Aftermath To A Kiss. by Terry Collett - [1,208 words]
The Sad Stare by Terry Collett - [1,207 words]
Like It's A Sin. by Terry Collett - [1,212 words]
Ingrid One Morning. by Terry Collett - [1,374 words]
Ingrid One Bedtime. by Terry Collett - [1,033 words]
Evening Out For Ingrid. by Terry Collett - [1,532 words]
Christina And The Dullness Of Life. by Terry Collett - [958 words]
The Old Man, The Dwarf And The Lost Little Boy by Michael Vincent A little boy finds himself caught between trusting an old man or... [1,698 words]
Played The Fool by Dylan Crow A a description of personal experience expressed more vibrantly [564 words]
Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained by Somdev Mukherjee The tale of an intelligent village boy whose aspiration to get a worthy job in... [2,389 words]
As If By God's Grace. by Terry Collett - [1,095 words]
So Here I Am by Eric White The prespective of a man's last day [1,780 words]
Thoughts On Benedict by Terry Collett - [615 words]
Thoughts Of Christina. by Terry Collett - ... [1,035 words]
Taking In The Tate Modern With A Ghost. by Terry Collett - [958 words]
Meeting At Lunch Time Recess. by Terry Collett - [1,095 words]
Well He Wasn't. by Terry Collett - [1,022 words]
The Angels And The Game Of Ludo by Michael Vincent A girl shows her friend the way out of the bottomless pit. [939 words]
Not At Auschwitz. by Terry Collett - [1,021 words]
Never Get Over. by Terry Collett - [1,066 words]
Last Confession by Terry Collett - [1,064 words]
Goodbye To Eva by Terry Collett - [1,644 words]
Funny What Goes On In One's Head. by Terry Collett - [1,101 words]
Elsa The Evacuee. by Terry Collett - [1,078 words]

Go to page: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
TITLE (EDIT)
The Open Window
DESCRIPTION
A story written over a hundred years ago but as entertaining today as it was then. Taken from a horror and ghost story anthology now out of print as is the original story.
[1,243 words]
AUTHOR
( H H Munro) Saki
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HECTOR HUGH MUNRO 1870-1916 USED THE PSEUDONYM SAKI TAKEN FROM THE CUP BEARER FROM THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. KILLED IN THE ATTACK ON BEAUMONT HAMEL WWI NOV. 1916.
[October 2014]
The Open Window
( H H Munro) Saki

“My Aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,” said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; “in the meantime you must try and put up with me.”

     Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing.

     “I know how it will be,” his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; “you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice.”

     Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction, came into the nice division.
 
     “Do you know many of the people round here?” asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufficient silent communion.

     “Hardly a soul,” said Framton. “My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here.”

     He made the last statement in a tone of distinct regret.
 
     “Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?” pursued the self-possessed young lady.

     “Only her name and address,” admitted the caller. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state. An indefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation.
 
     “Her great tragedy happened just three years ago,” said the child; “that would be since your sister’s time.”

     “Her tragedy?” asked Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place.
 
     “You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon,” said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn.
 
     “It is quite warm for the time of the year,” said Framton; “but has that window got anything to do with the tragedy?”

     “Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day’s shooting. They never came back. In crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shooting ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. It had been that dreadful wet summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning. Their bodies were never recovered. That was the dreadful part of it.” Here the child’s voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human. “Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back some day, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing, ‘Bertie, why do you bound?’ as he always did to tease her, because she said it got on her nerves. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window---”

     She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance.
 
     “I hope Vera has been amusing you?” she said.

    “She has been very interesting,” said Framton.
 
     “I hope you don’t mind the open window,” said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; “my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They’ve been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they’ll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you men-folks, isn’t it?”

     She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic; he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary.
 
     “The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise.” announced Framton who laboured under the tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one’s ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. “On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement,” he continued.
 
     “No?” said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention—but not to what Framton was saying.
 
     “Here they are at last!” she cried. “Just in time for tea, and don’t they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!”

     Framton shivered slightly and turned toward the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.
 
     In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window; they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: “I said, Bertie, why do you bound?”

     Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall door, the gravel drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision.
 
     “Here we are my dear,” said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window; “fairly muddy, but most of it’s dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?”

     “A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel,” said Mrs. Sappleton; “could only talk about his illness, and dashed off without a word of good-bye or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost.”

     “I expect it was the spaniel,” said the niece calmly; “he told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of Pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve.”

     Romance at short notice was her specialty.
  


 

READER'S REVIEWS (1)
DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.

"I posted this story written by another author a century ago to prove that a story written that long ago can be as entertaining today as it was then. It is also very well written - in a language that is timeless, not archaic as some of you may consider it to be. " -- Richard.

TO DELETE UNWANTED REVIEWS CLICK HERE! (SELECT "MANAGE TITLE REVIEWS" ACTION)

Submit Your Review for The Open Window
Required fields are marked with (*).
Your e-mail address will not be displayed.

Your Name*     E-mail*

City     State/Province     Country

Your Review (please be constructive!)*


Please Enter Code*:

Submit Your Rating for The Open Window

Worst     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Best

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 1916 ( H H Munro) Saki
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
October 2014
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
1297
 

Copyright © 1998-2001 Storymania Technologies Limited. All Rights Reserved.