18 Comments
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Sarah Wagner's avatar

I've loved this since the first time I read it all those years ago and it remains one of my all-time favorite short stories.

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

I'm so glad you were here to comment on this one. The nostalgia factor is absolutely complete. (To anyone reading, Sarah was a part of Better Fiction all those years ago.)

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Shannon W Haynes's avatar

Thank you for sharing this again here. I had never given the sphinx much thought previously and you brought her vividly to life/death as well as a dose of Hemingway.

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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Garen Marie's avatar

An amazing piece! So glad you posted it to Substack for us to enjoy.

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

Thank you!

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Jenean McBrearty's avatar

Great! Would you consider this, or was it a popular genre then, of a shape-shifting story element? Either way, this is a great story-telling way of presenting it!

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

Right after this, I wrote Shapeshifters in Love. I didn't think of the sphinx that way, but technically it's right, although with strict death-related rules.

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Joseph L. Wiess's avatar

I loved the tone of it. Sacred and desecration, life and death, the change and the conclusion.

The final scene was brutal, castrating without touching.

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

I'm glad you found this one!

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Keith Long's avatar

This is a crazy and unexpected story. It all comes together so well. Was Hemingway really like this ?

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

The events depicted in the story, other than the sphinx, are from his second African safari.

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Keith Long's avatar

So he was somewhat a womanizer ? Huh, I never knew. Also does this mean he/his wife actually shot someone in Africa??

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

No. But be survived two small-craft airplane crashes attempting to get home. Some suggest the resulting injuries played a role in his eventual suicide.

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August Niehaus's avatar

Absolutely stunning! Haven’t been sucked into a short read like that for quite some time. This held me in its grip, and I won’t easily forget it.

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

Thank you.

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Lyndsey Resnick's avatar

This one is probably my favorite of your stories. Which is a hard thing to say because you write so many great ones, but this one is my favorite.

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Thaddeus Thomas's avatar

You're so kind!

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