The Fly
By Katherine Mansfield
An elderly man is visiting the office of the owner of his former employer, referred to only as “the boss”, who is showing off recent renovations to his office. His friend struggles to remember something he wanted to say. Eventually he remembers and mentions that his daughters had recently visited Belgium to see the grave of his son, a casualty of the war, and discovered that the grave of the boss’s son is located nearby. They glance at a photograph of the boy on a shelf. The boss is reminded of the character of his beloved young son. The old fellow departs, the boss directs his clerk to leave him be, and struggles to find some sort of emotion, to no avail. He focuses his attention instead on a fly that has made the mistake of landing in an inkpot and is struggling to get out.
