Summary

A woman wrote a story about a hurricane. The hurricane should have infused the story with tension, but the hurricane never hit the city. The story is "flat and even," just as the land and sky would be right before a hurricane (173). She considers showing the story to a friend, but knows the friend will say the story lacks a center.

The story was difficult to write, because it has to do with religion. Though the woman is not religious, and has little interest in writing about religion, she felt a significant need to write the story. She cannot decide why the story gives her a confounded feeling "now that it is finished" (173). She knows it needs a center, but does not know what the center should be.

The woman herself had lived through "a time of hurricane" (173). During that time, she read...