Fletcher returns to a village he left years before as something of a hero? It’s never completely made clear what he was to the people of the village but it’s implied he was something of a cult leader or, at best, a leader who they all looked up to and lived in accordance with the ideas he espoused. And, apparently, it led to their stagnation and his downfall. He ends up at his old cottage, as an old, dirty, man, a “ragamuffin” someone says. The older people who were part of his original following seem to be anxious to speak to him and possibly censure him for the harm following him and his teachings did to them. Meanwhile a young woman is also interested in speaking to him and the older faction worry he will have the younger group as enamored and supportive of him as the old group was. While walking to visit her group, he meets a man he knew years ago. Fletcher apparently bullied this man when he was a boy. The now-man’s intentions aren’t clear. You think he’s going to hurt Fletcher in retaliation for the false prophecy and bullying he had once been subjected to by him, but then he ends up just leaving him at a bus station saying a bus will eventually come (although it doesn’t seem likely). The “situation” reflects the past work of Fletcher. The man has encouraged him that he’s going to get the bus and be able to go and speak (influence) with the younger group and Fletcher believes him (but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen).

So, like the people who Fletcher led in the past, Fletcher himself is sitting waiting for something that’s not going to come (and will possibly be hurt while sitting there like a lame duck). It’s ominous and open-ended. Based on what Fletcher himself has said in his interactions with the people of this village, he knows the results of his reign over the village’s people resulted in bad, but he still seems to be as arrogantly unrepentant as ever. I enjoyed this story and couldn’t help but look at it in political terms, considering our country’s political situation and social divisiveness and the leaders heading the various groups. I also read it through the lens of commupence and how it’s heavily implied that Fletcher will somehow pay for his past sins. Karma seems to be a force that will make itself known.