Short Fiction
A Tender Short Story
Peter Allen Weiss · Published August 30, 2016
Minnie Katz is seventy, shy, and inexperienced. Arthur Goldman is sixty-five, newly retired, divorced, and socially awkward. They meet by chance at a McDonald's — and an ordinary hour becomes the beginning of an unexpected human connection.
Minnie Katz is seventy years old, shy, and largely inexperienced in the things other people seem to have learned long ago. Arthur Goldman is sixty-five, recently retired, recently divorced, and not especially good at talking to anyone.
They meet by chance at a McDonald's. Nothing about the setting suggests significance, which is precisely the point.
Ugly Old Butterflies is a short story about the small, unglamorous moments in which loneliness gives way to company. Peter Allen Weiss writes these two people plainly and with real affection, letting hesitation, awkwardness, and quiet hope do the work that grand gestures usually claim.
It is a tender, clear-eyed piece about companionship, healing, and the plain fact that a meaningful beginning can arrive at any stage of a life — often in the least likely room.
A Look At The Worlds We Hide
Peter Allen Weiss · September 12, 2017 · Literary Fiction
Rose Friedlander has a story she has carried for a long time, and it begins with a belief she cannot set down: that her father was responsible for the deaths of her twin sisters and her mother. Behind a life of extraordinary wealth lies a far more fragile reality.
A Fiction Outtakes Series
Peter Allen Weiss · June 16, 2019 · Literary Fiction
Life goes on after Ohio State and the plea deal Bill Wynn accepted. Now a capable, confident cook, Bill moves through a world that has narrowed around him — and his connection with broiler cook Robert Moman continues to reshape the direction of both their lives.
A Fiction Outtakes Series
Peter Allen Weiss · June 8, 2018 · Literary Fiction
A hard experience at Ohio State University ends in a plea agreement, and Bill Wynn is left with a police record and a degree he cannot use. Then he meets Robert Moman, a broiler cook, and an unexpected connection begins to change the direction of both their lives.