If anyone is looking for this story, I think I found it here:
I noticed a couple differences between this text and the audio version I found at my library.
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Lovecraftian Fiction
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Lovecraftian Fiction
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Thoughts on this story:
Our unnamed protagonist is 34 and out on her own in NYC in 1948. Seems likely to me that she would have worked during WWII, while a bunch of men were off fighting the war. I think this story is a comment on the reactionary nature of post-war America, when women were pushed out of the workforce to make room for returning GIs and expected to go back to being wives and moms.
Is Jamie Harris even real? Or is he either A) a delusion or B) supernatural?
Arguments for real:
the shoeshine guy, florist, and kid all seem to remember him.
Arguments for not real:
She has a hard time picturing him, which is odd to me. I know exactly what my wife looks like (though I've known her for over 20 years, not a month, like this relationship).
I'm not sure about the Roysters - I mean, he's at their apartment for a month and nothing was changed? That's weird, like he was never there.
I think the newsstand guy is leading the protagonist on - he repeats what she says, never provides new info, and he seems to be trying to trick her as some sort of joke with the man in line behind her.
Finally, she tracks Harris down (with the kid's help) to a room in a partially remodeled building. She knocks at the door and thinks she hears something, but no-one ever comes to the door, even though she knocks at different days and times. If someone had been home, it seems like they would have answered the door to tell her to go away, if nothing else.
I felt like everyone was leading her on with their memories of Jamie, which I thought were all false. But I think you are right that that's only directly indicated at the newsstand and I've read that backwards into the other interactions. If he's real but supernatural or numinous in some way, what do you think he is? And why visit (haunt?) the protagonist?
@G.L. McDorman I'm not sure. Maybe he's a delusion or some sort of fabrication? Maybe she saw some handsome guy in a blue suit going into the Royster's building one time and knitted the rest together in her head. She's obviously very concerned about aging and remaining single.
If supernatural, maybe he needs someone to "host" him, so he moves from woman to woman. Like a vampire that feeds off of hospitality or affection, but for whatever reason decides (or is compelled) to move on after a time. Sounds like a writing prompt.
@ktvician I like the psychic vampire angle!
Also, there was a biography of Shirley Jackson by Ruth Franklin titled Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, published in 2016. I haven't read it yet.
It seems like there's been a lot of interest in Shirley Jackson lately. I'm very glad of it. I want to do "The Summer People" next, which I think is even creepier than "The Lottery."