"Jack Straw" was written for Jane Yolen's young adult anthology Things That Go Bump in the Night and was republished in the Journal of Mythic Arts, Summer, 2007. It was one of those rare stories that comes like grace, spilling out effortlessly all at once. In it, a frightening confrontation with Death leaves a young girl wondering about the perils of change.
"...As soon as I saw those white eyes, with shining black stones for a center, I knew him. Granny Frank told me once about old Jack Straw, shuffling through the fields on his way to harvest. But it wasn't crops he raked in, it was people. Right then I knew I was dying, even though my heart pounded like a drum and blood heated up my face like a furnace fire..." more>>
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