Ernest Hemingway’s A Very Short Story is a short story in miniature. The story, told in the third person, reads more like a witness testimony than a short story with a purpose. The story is told in seven short paragraphs and 633 words.
Interlude on the Roof
The injured soldier is carried to the roof of the hospital in Padua and spends a private moment with the nurse Luz, who is described as being cool on that hot night.
Love at Night
Luz works the night shift for three months. Before the soldier’s surgery, Luz performs his pre-op during which they share jokes. The soldier resolves not to speak of their relationship while under anesthesia. Everyone knows of their relationship.
Separation
The soldier must return to the front. Luz and the soldier go to a church and pray. They feel married but want to make it formal so that everyone will know about them and so that their love won’t be lost. They couldn’t marry because they didn’t have the right papers.
Lost Letters
Luz writes her soldier but he doesn’t receive the letters until after the armistice. He organizes them by date and reads them straight through. The letters said that Luz missed him terribly and couldn’t live without him.
Separation
After the armistice, Luz and the soldier agree that he will return to New York and get a job to prepare for marriage. He promises not to drink during their separation and said he didn’t want to see his friends. He would live for Luz. However, before he left, they fought about Luz not coming home immediately. Although they kissed goodbye, the argument was not finished. He felt terrible about it.
Luz Nurses and Meets Other Soldiers
After the soldier returns to New York, Luz goes to help open another hospital in a remote, lonely town in Italy. There is a battalion located nearby. The major of the battalion made love to Luz and Luz who was unfamiliar with Italian’s fell in love with him. Luz wrote her first soldier and said it was only a boy-girl affair between them and that she was going to marry her major in the spring. She admitted it was a sudden engagement. She told her soldier that she expected great things from him and wished him good luck.
It All Falls Apart
During the following spring, Luz writes her first soldier who has moved to Chicago. She tells him that she never married her major. The soldier doesn’t reply. He contracts gonorrhea from a sales girl while riding in a taxicab with her.
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