SHORT STORY SERIES - Hearts and Hands by O. Henry

Plot twist at its finest. This was an enjoyable short story. It has been almost a month since I read and wrote a short story review, and that is pretty bad. The hive book club community has been quiet too, so I needed to cause a buzz. I host a book chat every Saturday on the official hive book club discord server. Just a casual chat, nothing serious. I have been on hiatus for a while due to me moving houses and all that. I'm a bit settled now, so I can organize one soon.

William Sydney Porter is an American writer who uses the pen name 'O. Henry'. He is known for his witty and humorous writing style and of course his trademark twist ending. He was sent to prison at some point in his life for embezzlement. An event which shaped his writing. This story is one of his fine works.

The story begins on a train, where two old friends stumble on each other. One a pretty young lady, finely dressed, the other a young handsome lad, equally dressed nicely, handcuffed to a shabby looking man of huge physique. Sitting in opposite directions. The lady recognizes the lad and offers her hand to greet him but he offered his left hand, appologizing that his right hand was handcuffed to a 'prisoner'. Immediately the lady notices the cuffs, she was surprised, but the shabby looking man explained that the other man was a marshal and this was how it's been done to avoid the prisoner running away. The grand ending is even more surprising to the reader.

I had searched and searched for a decent story to read to no avail, until I stumbled on this one. The name sounded poetic and I wasn't at all disappointed by it's content. This story does epitomize the author's idea of a twisted ending because I surely was not expecting the story to end like it did. Although, I feel like the author startrd to use plot-convenience so as not to disrupt the flow of the story at some point, but hey, it's a short story, so we will allow it. I was also going to deliberate on the theme as it was a very insightful one but if I do, I will be giving 100% spoilers, so you'd just go read it yourself. It's a 5 minutes read. I do recommend this work to all ages and I will rate it 3.9/5.