Passage Analysis: Mary's Dance & Reflections

Tales of the Supernatural Overview

• A collection of six short stories exploring unexplained phenomena and supernatural encounters.
• Stories include themes of consequences, past burdens, inescapable fate, and transformation.
• The targeted audience is learners of English.

Irish Rose

• Mary Flynn is an 18-year-old actress, and Ireland's most photographed face, celebrating the premiere of a new film.
• Declan Knight, Ireland's biggest film star, is also in the film and feels jealous of Mary’s popularity.
• At the after-party in Dublin, Mary encounters a handsome, red-haired man who offers her fruit at a dance outside Phoenix Park
• Mary dances with the man, eats the fruit, and loses track of time, only to discover she has traveled to July 31, 2104, as an old woman

Haw Par Villa

• Johnnie Ang revisits Haw Par Villa in Singapore with his wife Linda and son Wesley, a place his father used to take him.
• Haw Par Villa, also known as Tiger Balm Gardens, are meant to promote Tiger Balm, and teach children about right and wrong.
• Raymond Ang used to take Johnnie to Haw Par Villa to show him the consequences of bad deeds through painted figures.
• Johnnie is afraid of the memory of a little painted man who represents a murderer
• At the villa, Wesley sees a little painted man resembling his grandfather, Raymond, and points out a snake tattoo on the figure's arm.

Banshee

• Conor Molloy, a computer game designer in Palo Alto, California, is working on a game called "Space Journey".
• Holly, Conor's wife, notices a strange woman on the computer screen, and they hear a loud scream
• That same night, Conor's stepfather, Bill Henderson, dies after being hit by a car in Cork.
• Conor and Holly later reveal what they saw to Conor’s mother, Bridie, who identifies the presence as a banshee, a death omen.
• Bridie says the banshee is a ghost from their family's past and can only be sen by those with Irish blood.
• Conor and Holly later see the banshee before Bridie dies peacefully, which they take to mean it was for her.

The Yew Trees

• Rupert and Zoe Blake are British television personalities known for "Home Makeover".
• The couple relocate to Tislington, a small town near Norwich, to renovate an old church called St. Stevens.
• St. Stevens’ graveyard contains two ancient yew trees known as Adam and Eve, which Zoe wants to cut down to improve the view.
• A gardener, Adam Ross, appears and advises against cutting down the trees, warning of negative consequences.
• After multiple failed attempts to get others to cut the tree, Zoe tries to cut it herself and ends up dying.
• Ross was in fact one with Adam, and steps back into the tree.
• Rupert leaves the trees alone following Zoe’s death

Tea

• Alice DeLancie is a writer's agent who visits Chris Horton, a travel writer, in his Paris flat, to check on his progress on the book.
• Chris has filled his new flat with Japanese furniture and was planning a follow-up book about traveling across Japan.
• Alice meets with Monsieur Dupont, who reveals the previous artist that lived in Chris' flat committed seppuku.
• Alice learned Chris was throwing a party to invite viewers to enjoy his art of Japan, and planned to intervene at the party
• At the Tea party, Alice's efforts prevent Chris from self-harm and he rediscovers his identity.

A Bed for Ambrose

• Ambrose dies from a bullet and sees the operating table from above.
• Then meets his mother in a white light.
• The Surgeon managed to revive him.
• He tries to tell a nurse who looks like his mother about what happened when he died.
• The nurse reveals that it was a fatal wound that cannot be healed in a physical sense.
• She smiles and reveals her green tongue.

We Will Wait Too

• The story discusses the nature and fate of characters who are conceived by writers but never make it into a published story.
• These unborn characters do not disappear but linger as "ghosts," hoping to be brought to life in a writer's works.
• Writers call it inspiration.
• The idea conveys how writers unintentionally bring the ghosts into stories and how readers interpret them.