THE STORY: Asleep in her apartment in the wee hours of the morning, Anne, a white woman, is jarred awake by a ringing telephone, and then again and again, until she rips the cord from the wall in frustration. But then the ringing phone is replaced by a knock at the door, her insistent caller being a black woman—who claims that she is Anne’s twin sister, Nancy. Rattled and fearful, Anne tries to decoy her unwelcome visitor from the apartment, but Nancy stays. Gradually their encounter develops into a revealing, provocative and ultimately fatal confrontation, which yields a disturbing yet perceptive study of racial distrust and the essential brotherhood it subverts and denies.
“…A genuine command of dialogue and the ability to create dramatic tension and atmosphere.” —The New York Times.
Included in the collection
The American Nightmare.
