（外文电子版资料）Charles de Lint - Big City Littles.pdf

BIG CITY LITTLES BY CHARLES DE LINT FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY ARE ALL VIRTUES, AND SOMETIMES IT CAN BE DIFFICULT — YET ESSENTIAL — TO TELL THEM APART. The Fates seem to take a perverse pleasure out of complicating our lives. Im not sure why. We do such a good jo it all on our own that their divine interference only seems to be overkill. Its not that we deliberately set out to screw things up. Wed all like to be healthy and happy, not to mention independently wealthy—or at least able to make our living doing something we care about, something we can take pr in. But even when we know better, we invariably make a mess of everything, both in our private and our public lives. Take my sister. She knows that boyfriends are only an option, not an answer, but thats never stopped her from bouncing from one sorry relationship to another, barely stopping to catch her breath between one bad boy and the ne But I should talk. Its all well and fine to be comfortable in your own skin, to make a life for yourself if theres no one the scene to share it with you. But too often I still feel like the original spinster, doomed to end her days forever alone some garret. I guess for all the strides weve made with the womens movement, there are some things we can still accept only an intellectual level. We never really believe them in our hearts. THE LITTLE MAN SITTING ON SHERI PIPERS pillow when she opened her eyes was a good candidate f tip of her middle finger to the heel of her palm, a small hamster-sized man, dressed in raggedy clothes with the look bird about him. His eyes were wide set, his nose had a definite hook to it, his body was plump, but his limbs were thi twigs. His hair was an unruly tangle of short, brown curls and he wore a pair of rectangular, wire-framed eyeglasses much