Help me identify this short story based on my hazy memory, please.

November 18, 2013 9:45 AM

I heard a story (fiction) on the radio a few years ago and I'd like to find out what it was called and who wrote it. It was most likely presented on the show "Selected Shorts" but I'm not certain about that. The story took place in a town where everything seemed normal except that a black shape appeared one day in the sky overhead. Slowly over time the black shape fills the sky until the horizon is covered. A married couple are at the center of the story - there's more about their relationship than this thing in the sky. I think the sky-thing is a metaphor for something unspoken that dominates our fears. The characters barely react to it's presence (I think.) Anyone out there know this story?
posted by cellura p to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

There's an episode of The Twilight Zone similar to this called I am the Night Colour me Black but with a convict at the story's core.
posted by windykites at 10:28 AM on November 18, 2013

This sounds a bit like Fat Ladies Floated in the Sky Like Balloons, but it's a single woman at the center of that, so maybe not?
posted by Miss T.Horn at 10:36 AM on November 18, 2013

Best answer: Could it be The Balloon by Donald Barthelme? Your description sounds fairly ominous where Barthelme's story strikes me as more whimsically surreal, but seems similar in basic outline.
posted by newmoistness at 11:07 AM on November 18, 2013

Sorry, my previous link is incomplete; here's the full text of the Barthelme story.
posted by newmoistness at 11:14 AM on November 18, 2013

It also sounds kind of like Don DeLillo's White Noise, although that's a novel (is it possible that it was excerpted for the show?)
posted by kagredon at 11:50 AM on November 18, 2013

Response by poster: Yes! I read the Barthelme story and I'm pretty sure that's it. Thank you!
posted by cellura p at 12:37 PM on November 18, 2013

Best answer: You'd know better, of course, but "The Balloon" is more about, well, a balloon, rather than a dark cloud. Is it possible you're thinking of "The Ceiling" by Kevin Brockmeier?
posted by snackattack at 6:01 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]