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Fiction

The Philosopher’s Death

A short story by Stafford Betty. (Warning – not for those of a nervous disposition!)

Wendell had been nervous in the Madras airport. A Tamil terrorist’s bomb had blown up thirty people there a few years back, and the Tamil Tigers in neighboring Sri Lanka were still fighting for independence. Now, sitting comfortably in first class heading for Bombay, he couldn’t help feeling relieved at the thought that in three days he’d be back in his office working on his book. Then for some reason his memory lurched far back in time, and he found himself thinking of Sister Fidelia, the oracular Irish nun whose insight into life could be measured by the squint of her eyes. “In a hundred years half of you will be burning in hell!” she had said one day to her class of eighth graders.

…