You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In “Adventures in the Skin Trade and other stories” (1, 2) by Dylan Thomas there appears a short story entitled “The Followers” (1, 2, 3, 4) which is a curious blend of the comic and eerie and which possesses an ending that slaps the reader in the face by virtue of its suddenness and unexpectedness.
This tale, only seven pages long and told in the first person, is concerned with the adventures of two young men of indeterminate age, “too young and too old”, who are apparently more boys than men. One rainy evening just after working hours, motivated mainly by feelings of boredom, sadness and loneliness, they decide to engage in an activity they have done previously; to follow someone home and observe this person through his window.
After two or three comic interludes spiced with humorous dialogue, including a visit to a saloon as dull and drab as the weather outside, the boys decide to follow someone. They are depicted as mischievous but not malicious. The saloon does not offer enough to hold them. “That evening it was the saddest room I had ever known.” Everything around them seems sad and they are in dire need of some excitement. They are soon to get it, and in an entirely un-looked for manner.
They finally fix on a young lady to whom they give the fictitious name of Hermione Weatherby and proceed to follow her down rain-swept streets to her home. They then tip-toe to the back of the house and peer through an uncurtained