Casual Shorts: Give Me Your Cold Hand by John Keefauver

Keefauver, John. "Give Me Your Cold Hand." The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories, edited by Herbert van Thal, London: Pan Books, 1965.

Rating:     7/10

Included in Research into Marginal Living: The Short Stories of John D. Keefauver.

While frantically helping to dig a man out from a collapsed tunnel on Carmel Beach, south of San Francisco, Tony notices a female bystander intently watching the scene. The woman has a noticeable presence: she is tall and powerful--sexually powerful--and Tony quickly falls for her. In turn, Anita is drawn to Tony, admiring his large, strong hands. She is drawn to men with large hands, but as her husband hit her with his before abandoning her altogether, to protect herself she carries a sharp darning needle in her clothing.

Tony and Anita's relationship progresses quickly, and he moves into her and her husband's million dollar home on Pebble Beach. Yet shortly after moving in, Tony becomes annoyed at her obsessive need to keep the needle on her person. In fact, he is creeped out by not only Anita, but by groundskeeper George, who believes Mr. Nelson, Anita's husband, communicates with him. Tony's aggression and Anita's passion clash, and their relationship quickly begins to sour.

This story is surprisingly suspenseful, and has a plot more layered than most of the standard stories that appear in the Pan Books of Horror Stories. Of his six stories to appear in the Pan anthologies (four originals, one reprint and one re-write), this one is my favourite.

The structure here is a little different as well. A good opening scene takes place following the events of the story, describing a group of cops digging in the rain, and beside the hole is a covered corpse. Meanwhile narrator Tony and groundskeeper George sit and watch, handcuffed together. Some clues mixed in with some misdirection.

This story was (much) later re-written as "Dead Voices Live" for the 1992 Joe Landsdale-edited anthology Dark at Heart. It would be interesting to know what led to the decision to re-write an early story.

For more Wednesday Short Stories, please visit Patti Abbott's blog.