A Piece of News

After coming in from the rain, Ruby Fischer, an isolated and unfaithful young backwoods wife, chances on a newspaper story in which a woman with the same name is shot in the leg by her husband. Though Ruby knows that such an action on the part of her husband, Clyde, is quite improbable—even though he is aware of her infidelities and has beaten her—she is immediately struck by the imaginative possibilities of the situation.

Precious Ruby then romantically fantasizes about her funeral in a daydream, and, when Clyde Fisher finally arrives home, she shows him the excerpt from the newspaper. For obvious reasons, primitive Clyde vehemently denies the charges. For an instant, however, he and his wife have a vision of each other in alien, fantasy roles—an experience that is pleasing, exciting, and frightening.

In the end, Clyde proves to Ruby that the story cannot be about them because, aside from the fact that she has not been shot, the newspaper is from Tennessee (not Mississippi, their home state). And where did she get it, anyway? The rain has stopped, but another storm may be about to begin.