The Pardoner's Tale

by Grant Carrington

"The Pardoner's Tale" by G. Carrington, was published in THE CANADIAN FORUM (October 1959, Fifty Cents). It was my first fiction publication outside of a school publication. It was inspired by Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale (surprise!) and West Side Story.

The door of the drugstore swung open with a tinkle and the trio walked in. The store was already inhabited with girls in tight sweaters and T-shirts and blue-jacketed boys. When the crowd saw the tall, good-looking lad surrounded by his younger brother and the hard-faced chainsmoker known as Tiny, even the juke box seemed to pause. Then the murmur of inaudible conversation began again. But now it was punctuated with cries of "Mike," "Hey, Mike," "Mike honey."