by Jane Rule
Dying is gathering up the pieces, the bright and the dark, fitting them together, puzzling out the true picture, seeing it at last. Ella couldn’t any longer see. There was no one there to help her.
“Isn’t anyone going to show me how? Isn’t anyone going to teach me?”
The last sentence Ella Carr wrote might have been the title for her next book, “Death is not that Kind of Lover,” for it modified the truth, that death is no lover at all, as she had always been able to in fiction, as she had not managed to in life.
About the Author
Jane Rule (1931–2007) was the author of several novels and essay collections, including the groundbreaking lesbian love story Desert of the Heart (1964), which was made into the feature film Desert Hearts. She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2007. Born in New Jersey, Rule moved to Canada in 1956, and lived on Galiano Island, British Columbia, until her death at the age of seventy-six.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
“A Chair of George” under the title “A Delicate Balance” was first published by Chatelaine, as were “Seaweed and Song,” “A Migrant Christmas,” and “Joy.” CBC’s Anthology has broadcast “You Cannot Judge a Pumpkin by the Smile Upon its Face,” “Blessed Are the Dead,” and “The Pruning of the Apple Trees.” “Slogans” appeared in the Women and Words anthology. “The End of Summer” appeared in the English magazine, Aquarius. All the other stories in this volume appear for the first time.
Copyright © 1985 by Jane Rule
Cover design by Tracy Dunham
978-1-4804-2943-7
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY JANE RULE
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign up now at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia