The Midnight Zone
By Lauren Groff, first published in The New Yorker
A woman who suffers a concussion on a camping trip must take care of her two young sons while a threatening creature lurks beyond their cabin doors.
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Plot Summary
A woman, her husband, and her two sons go on a camping trip at an overgrown campground where a Florida panther was spotted. The woman’s husband leaves the campground because a tenant of an apartment he owns has killed herself. While her husband is out for several days, the woman tries to change a lightbulb in their cabin. She falls, hits her head on the ground, and loses consciousness. When she wakes, she forgets her children’s names and suffers from vertigo and motion sickness. The woman prepares dinner and entertains her children while she experiences the gut wrenching symptoms of a concussion. After she puts her children to bed, the woman tries to stay awake. She reads books and magazines and tries to recite poems. Her consciousness seemingly leaves her body, and it observes the cabin and the forest from the outside. When the woman wakes, her young sons play cards. They leave the cabin and think they see a Florida panther. Later in the afternoon, the woman’s husband returns.
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