Short Fiction Filter: Woman Collecting Apologies

February 26, 2021 10:16 AM

Asking for a friend: "Literary friends: does anyone remember a short story about a woman who collected apologies as though they were physically tangible items? I’m positive I read it once but I can’t find it or recall anything else to identify it. Help?"
posted by girlbowler to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

Best answer: Monica Wood's book, Description, refers to a "story [that] gives us a woman who collects apologies, placing them in her pockets, sewing them into her hems, fashioning them into paper birds...When she placed the finished apology on the tombstone she watched it unfold its wings and fly." That's all I can gather from Google's search result, which links to a Scribd page that's largely blurred out. But maybe tracking down Wood's book is worth a shot?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:08 PM on February 26, 2021

Best answer: The story referred to in the book MonkeyToes linked is "Offerings" by Marlene Buono. It appeared in Flash Fiction: Very Short Stories edited by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka. Couldn't find the story's text online, but hopefully this is the one you're thinking of.
posted by xenization at 6:36 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: MonkeyToes and xenization: Thank you! She used your clues and information to track it to an issue of Story that she read in 1991. You have made my friend very happy.
posted by girlbowler at 11:42 AM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]