Parable: The One
Series: The One collection
Written and Narrated By: Jess Walter
Length: 49 mins
Can you really pack that much into just 49 minutes? …Yesssss…!!!
I’d been seeing The One series over on Amazon for quite some time, even saw that one of those short stories was written by that guy who had been becoming one of my favorite writers (No, not gonna call him an author because his way with words is sooo brilliant that he’s far and above that! No, a WRITER!!!), I was never that interested in getting any of them cuz they’re so danged short.
Then we did The Cold Millions, and our little audiobook club was enraptured with That Guy. Soooo my mom made Parable one of her choices for our next listen, and yippeeeeee! That Guy did it again!
49 minutes, and I was laughing, sighing, a trifle enraged and despondent, then crying tears of sorrow, tears of joy by the end. Can you reeeeeally do that much in so short a time, with so few words?!?
That Guy can!!!
It starts with the standard love triangle. Walter has been busy as of late; he’s been out of town; he hasn’t been giving her that much attention. And so she’s found another. Too bad it’s his neighbor—that makes it all AWKwaaaard!
“She” is Millie. And it turns out? “She” is his dog… So I laughed.
But then Walter takes us on a tour of his childhood where he’s kinda sorta unfortunate in that on the farm/ranch, it quite simply isn’t done to get attached to animals. They have their uses (Here’s where I sighed). Once they’re no longer useful? Wellllll, his granddad, his dad say: “They’re in pain…” and that means that particular dog or whatever is no longer ever ever EVER seen again. A bullet to the head, or some such thing (Where I was enraged). Walter knows not to open his heart, he knows he could be decimated as soon as what he’s come to love is no longer useful (And heeeeere’s where I became despondent).
At no time does Walter try to excuse anything; he’s just offering the explanation: That’s just how his childhood was. Life doesn’t quite mean the same thing on a farm. But at leeeeast he’s nowhere neeeear as deplorable in his attitude as, say Jon Katz is: Yes, there are truly unfortunate outcomes, but there’s NO sneering. Rather, we can hear the heavy sigh in Walter’s voice as he tells us of being a boy and hearing, “They’re in pain…”
So he’s rather bemused when he grows up to love a woman who loves cats. Nope, he ain’t opening his heart to them (Turns out he’s not as enamored of felines as I am), so he’s safe, he believes. Then, after they’d kicked around the idea of getting a dog for a few years, when they first get Millie as a rescue, he’s still pretty safe cuz Millie is a mess, always trying to get out, always zooming off the minute anyone’s guard is down, always showing up way down the way at the little old lady’s house. Millie is looking for something, always always always. And what she’s looking for? Well, it ain’t Jess!
Until it is…
And then Millie becomes The One for Jess, joining him on lengthy walks, joining him as he sits down and spends hours crafting his (Brilliant!) stories. Theirs is a bond beyond compare.
Until it kinda starts to go sideways. Until Life starts getting in the way.
A neighbor, a kind gentleman, starts noticing Millie, starts asking if he can “take Millie for a walk” which is just fine for the family. After all, their lives have gotten busy, and those long walks have become shorter now that there are book tours where Jess has to read for a smattering of people at a signing. The kids are growing up, who has time? It’s a blessing that Millie has a new friend. So who notices when she starts spending whole days at the neighbor’s house, whole nights?
Soon, Jess is realizing that his true love, his The One, has forged her own way in life, and it only partly has to do with him. When you love, can you let go?
Yesssss.
And when you love, and they get older, as dogs will, can you really really REALLY let go?
Yessss…
There are happy “It’s a Wonderful Life” moments, there are sad “This Was Your Life” moments. But mostly, there’s just true love, if you live it honestly, if you live it fearlessly. It will break you, or it will make you. And Jess narrates this himself with the same beautiful oddly flat tones that give it so much meaning (Listen to his Afterword in We Live in Water which is a touching, haunting ode to Spokane!). Well done, sir!
Too many swings of emotion to count, I tell you. And all? Yup, all…
…in 49 minutes…
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.