Richard Bausch has published nine volumes of stories. An acknowledged master of the short story, he has also written thirteen highly regarded novels, most recently Playhouse (Knopf, 2023). Three full-length motion pictures have been made from his work. He won the prestigious Rea Award for the Short Story in 2012, and the PEN/Malamud Prize in 2005, and has just delivered to Knopf his tenth collection, The Fate of Others, from which this story is taken.