My running review of Women's Weird 2 continues with a story from Australia, first published in 1902. I was vaguely aware of Bayton - the name at least - and on the basis of this tale I think will seek out more of her work. 'Dreamer' is a very simple story, in plot terms at least.
A young woman arrives at a remote railway station and is benighted as a terrible downpour begins. She expects a buggy to be waiting for her, anticipating the final stage of a trip home to her home and her beloved mother. But there is no buggy, and the nameless woman has no choice but to walk home through increasingly treacherous conditions.
As flooding bursts the banks of streams, once familiar scenes become alien and menacing. Baynton does a fine job of describing the Australian outback on a stormy night, and at one point the woman almost drowns crossing what would normally be an easily fordable stream. Eventually she reaches home, but the greeting she receives is not the one she expects.
This story wrong-footed me, perhaps because Bayton's style reminded me of A.E. Coppard, another ruralist, and a writer/poet whose tales often take a fantastical turn. But this is a very good story, perhaps looking back to the contes cruel of writers like Maupassant.
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