The Boy in the Green Hat
By Norma Klein, first published in Prairie Schooner
A mother comes home from the park one day and tells her husband she was followed by a strange young boy in a green hat. The husband does not fully believe his wife because of her past bouts of paranoia, so he decides to investigate.
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Plot Summary
After Sol Lange comes home from work one day, his three-months-pregnant wife Katherine begins to tell him about her day as he comes through the door. She tells him how she took their son Avram to the park, and while they were there, this little boy in a green hat, about nine or ten-years-old, followed them. The boy stood by himself, and continued to follow them, even when Katherine met up with her friend Janie. Lange finds this story suspicious and goes to investigate when his wife takes her nightly bath.
Lange goes to a telephone booth to call Janie to verify his wife's story. Janie says she did see a boy in a green hat, but he was playing with other children. Lange feels unsatisfied with this answer. When Janie asks why he would ask her such a question, Lange tells Janie about how Katherine suffered from paranoia after the birth of their son, and the doctor told him to be cautious in the future. When Lange goes back upstairs after the call, Katherine says that Janie called to invite them to dinner and said she had just talked to Lange, who was worried about Katherine. Lange is infuriated by Janie's big mouth, and Katherine breaks down saying that Lange does not trust her. Lange eventually admits to himself and his wife that maybe that is true, and they go to bed.
The next weekend, Lange takes Avie to the park. There, he sees the boy in the green hat. When he goes home and tells Katherine that he saw the boy in the green hat, Katherine looks at Lange with a blank expression and asks what boy he is talking about.