“Sue Ellen Learns to Dance” by Judy Alter

 

Sue Ellen looked at her children, their faces wary and unsmiling, their clothes soiled with ground-in grime that would not come out no matter how hard she scrubbed, their feet bare and dirty. She sighed and turned back to stare sightlessly at the road before them.

This little heartbreaker won the Spur for Best Short-Story in 1998.

Set in the Depression Era this is a tale of an uncalibrated marriage, that is, one where dispositions do not quite match. When a marriage is well-calibrated, a couple not only endures facing hardship, they often come out the other end stronger and have had happiness along the way despite troubles.

When it is not calibrated, even the best of external circumstances can’t make up for the lack that is at the core of what the uniting was all about in the first place.

Sue Ellen’s marriage is poorly calibrated, and the circumstances are tough.

What is presented is bleak and we all have a taste that all was bleak before and will be bleak after our brief sojourn.

Honest portrayals such as these remind us to value what we have, or, perhaps for some, hold a mirror up to poor calibration and might raise a few questions about the lot of one’s life.