Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men — Padgett Powell

Seated at her kitchen table somewhere in the South, the middle-aged Mrs. Hollingsworth is making a grocery list. As she begins her list she starts to imagine a lost-love story. Characters from the past enter her daydream, such as the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, an icon of the Lost Cause. Her dream then takes a surreal turn as Mrs. Hollingsworth's daughters and husband enter the picture, along with the boys of the neighborhood and two petty criminals named Oswald and Bundy. What started out as a grocery list evolves into a discovery of the things she has and the things she lacks.