Tiny Tales: Stories of Romance, Ambition, Kindness, and Happiness

Praise for Alexander McCall Smith's Tiny Tales :"Whimsical. . . .xa0Quirky and delightful." — Booklist (starred review)Praise for Alexander McCall Smith:xa0"McCall Smith's generous writing and dry humor, his gentleness and humanity, and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characters without caricature or condescension have endeared his books to readers." -- The New York Times "A virtuoso storyteller." -- The Scotsman "A writer who charms many readers . . . McCall Smith's characters are well drawn and alive." -- The Providence Journal "McCall Smith's accomplished novels [are] dependent on small gestures redolent with meaning and main characters blessed with pleasing personalities." -- Newsday ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and a number of other series and stand-alone books. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been best sellers throughout the world. He lives in Scotland. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. DESCENT Molly wanted to do a parachute jump. xa0 “I wouldn’t if I were you,” said her friend. “What’s the point?” xa0 That was a difficult question to answer. What was the point of jumping out of an aeroplane and tumbling down through the air? The deliberate courting of risk? Proving something about yourself—namely that you can jump out of an aeroxadplane? It was not a simple question to answer, and so Molly simply said, “I could meet somebody. You never know.” xa0 “On a parachute jump?” her friend mocked. “Meet somexadbody? Are you serious?” xa0 But when she went to the parachute club, Molly met an exceedingly handsome instructor. He was known as Drop-Dead Gorgeous. This was not a good nickname for a paraxadchutist to have, but Molly did not know about it at the time. xa0 “All right, Molly,” said Drop-Dead Gorgeous. “I’m going to strap you to me. Then we’re going to jump out of the airxadcraft strapped together. Any questions?” xa0 Molly tried to think of a question, but could only think of asking, How long will it last? She was not thinking so much of the jump, but of how long she would be strapped to the instructor. xa0 They went up in the plane. Molly looked down at the ground below. The countryside was parcelled out in small, neat fields. Rivers were tiny veins of silver. The cars on the roads were minute beetles. The earth was so dear . . . “Comxadfortable?” asked Drop-Dead Gorgeous. xa0 “Very,” said Molly. xa0 The descent took very little time. The ground seemed to come up rather fast, but the instructor landed on his feet, cushioning Molly’s landing. She looked into his eyes. “That was lovely,” she said. xa0 He smiled at her. “Let’s not unstrap just yet,” he said. “We could go for coffee together.” xa0 He did the walking. Strapped to him in her harness, her feet did not touch the ground, but she was happy to be carried—more than happy, perhaps. xa0 After coffee, he suggested they go for a walk. “No need to get unstrapped just yet,” he said. xa0 They spent the day together, in close proximity. At the end, he said, “You know something? I feel very close to you.” xa0 “So do I,” said Molly. She was convinced that she had found the man she was looking for, and he felt the same thing, mutaxadtis mutandis, of course. xa0 “I’m going to give up jumping,” he promised. xa0 She was relieved. He thought that her relief was connected with her concerns about the danger involved in parachuting, but that was not the real reason. She did not want him to be strapped to anybody else, which was quite reasonable, in her view. At the same time, she fully understood that a key elexadment in any successful relationship was not to be too clingy. Read more