McCullers wrote misfits and weirdos with such heart and compassion, and her short stories are often as moving as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, probably my favourite book of all time.
In “The Haunted Boy”, a kid named Hugh (yikes) has been ostracized by his peers because his mother spent time in a psychiatric facility after a scary episode. Hugh’s trauma affects every aspect of his life. He tries to form a bond with John, and older kid who is taking care of him.
In her biography of McCullers, Mary V. Dearborn paints her as a bit naïve and childlike even as an adult, and perhaps this is why she wrote children so well. When Hugh finally confesses his fears to his mother, and his father validates him at the end, it’s impossible not to tear up.
Collected in The Ballad of the Sad Café: The Novels and Stories of Carson McCullers, Houghton Mifflin, 1951
A Personal Anthology 