"Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war."

I read this twice in high school. Once in grade nine and another in grade 12. Both times I was mesmerized by it. It tells the heart of realistic fiction. The price of war.

Rereading it again in 2020, I am struck by the wordplay of this three page story. Every word is used beautifully to describe the setting, feelings, themes and advance the plot and character. It is a story, I will continue to come back to again and again through the years and be marvelled still.