There Was an Old Woman by Ray Bradbury. Short summary

5 seconds

Throughout her life, Aunt Tildy has followed the same philosophy—you must always fight death, not believe in it. And one day a black man came to her with a wicker basket in his hands.

1 minute

Tildy has tried throughout her life to maintain a certain stance on life and death. Her position has been that death is not to be feared. Moreover, death is not worth believing, since the woman is convinced that death has no intelligence.

One day a black man came to the old woman’s house with a basket of wicker. Tildy immediately understood everything and exclaimed in response to the visitor to leave her house as quickly as possible. The housekeeper was also surprised by the impudence of the visitor and demanded him to leave her property.

But the man continued to stand still. Tildy began to raise her tone again. In the next retort, the woman was already resigned to the guest’s intransigence. At this point the woman decided to go away to make herself some coffee. Then the man in black entered the house. Before the man in black sat down, Tildy warned her that the chair was not in the best condition.

The woman had already prepared to listen to the guest, though she already knew what he would say.