Bonus: Live fake horse racing!
Summary: Rock flies, somebody dies.
Commentary: This story sucks, and it has sucked everytime I read it since middle school. It has three issues.
1. Shirley Jackson's prose is like nails on a chalkboard. "the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." Get the fuck out of here. That reads like it was written by a middle schooler.
2. It's opaque and contradictory in, I assume, an intentional way, but it's just annoying.
3. Tessie is the least interesting/likable character in the story. I wouldn't go so far as to say I want her to get stoned to death, but she's not much above that.