This is The Writer's Voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

I'm Deborah Treesman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Sheila Heddy read her story just a

little fever from the April 18, 2022 issue of the magazine.

Heddy is a Canadian writer whose books of fiction and nonfiction include the novels, How

Should a Person Be, Motherhood, which was a finalist for the Scotiabankiller Prize, and

Pure Color, which was published earlier this year.

Now here's Sheila Heddy.

Just a little fever.

She was shampooing her hair with cherries, it was entirely her idea to do it.

She hadn't read about it anywhere.

She had taken the little cellophane sack of cherries out of her bag, and put the cherries

in a wooden bowl, and pounded them down with a flat, broad spoon, drawing out the pits

with her fingers.

Then she had slipped into the shower, and put the whole mess on her head, and shampooed

it in with a little bit of moisture.

This was her way of treating herself, since only the moon seemed to be on her side, shining

down silver on her coat that night.

After she rinsed out her hair, it was pink and smelled like cherries.

She went to bed with it wet like that, and when she woke up, it looked like her head

had bled in the night.

She put the pillowcase in the sink with a bit of soap, and left for her day in the world,

...