387 Short Stories: Day 20: Story 20: Foley’s Pond by Peter Orner

Title: Foley’s Pond
Author: Peter Orner
Taken from the Collection: The Best American Non Required Reading 2013

The story I read today was, “Foley’s Pond” by Peter Orner. The story first appeared in The Paris Review. I read it through my collection of, “The Best American Non Required Reading 2013”, edited by Dave Eggers. In this story, it is the pond, which is the protagonist. The story revolves around it.

The story starts with a child’s drowning in the pond. Barbara Zamost is two and a half years old and manages to slide under the fence of her house, which surrounds the pond, and drowns in it. Her older brother Nate blames himself for the drowning. The entire community is shattered by the incident and its children stop going to the pond. The pond is hazardous as well with a chemical plant right next to it. Ultimately, what happens to…