RED ANT HOUSE

Ann Cummins first book of short stories is like a collection of idiosyncrasies. Each oddball character is in the center of a tale that might remind us of that one little part of our lives that makes us smirk or cringe - the thing that makes us weird. The stories seem to remind us that we're all a little strange, but some of us hide it better than others.

Primarily set in the American Southwest, though in an ambiguous time frame, Red Ant House is broken into 12 little bursts of character's lives, perfect for a waiting room or a subway. And be sure Cummins will take you away from the comfort of you chair, and into one strange little world after another. Cummins writes from the world she grew up in: Indian reservations set on desolate lands one character calls the "wasteland."

In the last story in the collection Cummins writes, "…Billy was running, not thinking at all, and then he was leaping over the inky water of San Francisco Bay, right smack-dab in the middle of one sweet moment." These character-driven stories are just that - moving forward until suddenly the reader is right smack-dab in that sweet moment. This isn't to say all the stories are sweet and innocent. They're sweet in the sense that they're real feeling and, in that sweet moment, the reader gets a true idea of just what makes the characters tick.

In the book's first story "Red Ant House," the main character, Leigh Rachel, seems to have a knack for knowing secrets - that the town singleton pays cash to see naked children, and that her friend's father-figure has a real family in another town. Cummins has said the red ants are a metaphor for that underground world that exists in people's lives, but that we never really see - the one Leigh Rachel is so good at noticing.

This metaphor loosely ties her collection together, as Cummins introduces the reader to her characters and then shows them what is just under the surface -- those little idiosyncrasies that make people who they are, the part that's hidden away where almost no one else can see. In "Starburst" a cop thinks his wife might be a secret kleptomaniac and compulsive liar. In "Headhunter" a woman yanks out the gold tooth of a man she's just run off the road with her truck. She is quietly grieving the loss of her mother through this man's death. And in "Where I Work" a woman working in a pocket-making factory confesses she'd like to marry a fat man.

"If I married a fat man, I'd draw stars on his back every night. I'd say, How many points does this star have? Now pay attention, termite, I'd say. How many points does this star have?" the character thinks.

Some of Cummins protagonists are at that clumsy spot just before "coming of age" - on the verge of understanding something beyond childhood, but not quite getting it. An 8-year-old boy wants to show his independence by sneakily spending a night on his own in "Crazy Yellow." But later a creepy neighbor frightens him into spending the night hiding out on the shore of a nearby beach.

In "Trapeze" a friendless girl - one of few whites on an Indian reservation - is full of secrets. She privately has little-girl fantasies about being a trapeze artist. She keeps quiet when a bully named Purple (aptly named for the sweater she's worn daily for years) torments her when no one else is looking. The character, Karen, keeps secrets, not wanting to be called a snitch. In the end Purple reveals a larger secret hiding beneath her sweater - one much more grown up than an acrobatic fantasy.

Cummins gets downright bizarre in one tale: 'The Hypnotist's Trailer." In this story a woman goes to see a low-rent hypnotist about her drinking problem. But the hypnotist takes the woman's belly button, convincing her that she has lost her "center" because of her addictions. Of course the reader will see what makes this woman vulnerable, but the absolute departure from reality is a little confusing among a collection of stories that are largely realistic, albeit sometimes outrageous.

Cummins drills to the center of what makes these characters tick, what they long for, fear and what they dream - and how this works into life on the desolate landscape where her characters reside. Many of the characters are the types who imagine they're invisible to the rest of the world. She reminds us that there's always something to see on the surface, but just imagine what you'll find if you dig a little deeper.

This collection, mutually charming and disturbing, is a wonderful beginning for this promising writer.

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Laura M. Schneider is a newspaper writer and reporter working at a mid-sized daily newspaper in northern Ohio. Laura has interned with newspapers and news organizations where she wrote a combination of hard news articles and feature stories. She also has done freelance work for Scripps Howard News Service, writing features that were published nationwide. Laura studied both English and journalism as an undergraduate and plans to pursue graduate study in the future.

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