Tim Gautreaux, Southeastern’s Writer-in-Residence and retired professor from Southeastern after more than 30 years, recently read one of his latest short stories here on campus. The story, titled “Idols,” was based on characters from two separate books by the deceased author Flannery O’Connor. Gautreaux and Tom Franklin, an English teacher at the University of Mississippi, were going to create an anthology of short stories in honor of O’Connor.

This did not end up happening, but Gautreaux had the story written all the same, and so he had it published to share with the community.

“Gautreaux reads for us annually,” said David Hanson, English department head, explaining Gautreaux’s duties as writer in residence, “and he also supervises students doing thesis writing and independent study work.”

The story, based in Mississippi, involves a typewriter repairman named Julian who has lost his mother and suddenly inherits an old, broken up mansion in desperate need of repair. He quickly moves out to the mansion and finds that he can’t do the repairs all on his own, and so he hires a man named Obadiah, or Obie for short, to live with him in a separate small kitchen house on Julian’s land to help with repairs.

The two men get along for the most part, and Julian soon learns about Obie’s large amount of tattoos covering his body. Obie tells the story of how his wife left him because of these, calling them his “idols” and beating him with a broom. Obie has been searching for employment so he can have the tattoos burned off in an attempt to win his wife back.

After a long time of employment in which Julian has withheld as much money as possible from Obie by charging him for everything he does and uses, Obie finishes his treatments and after letting Julian know he no longer needs the money, leaves in the middle of the night.

Julian quickly finds himself all alone in a large, very drafty house in the middle of winter and catches a bad case of influenza. Not only that, but he finds himself knee-deep in debt and his house is quickly falling apart from its age, yet he refuses to leave.

Things continually get worse for this man, and one night, he gets flooded from a frozen toilet exploding, plaster from the walls falling on his head, and desperately phones Obie, who has moved back in with his wife. Obie ends up telling him that the plaster is “the least of your problems.”

Gautreaux’s story got a very good response from the crowd, who laughed many times throughout the reading.

“I read the story before,” said Margo Kennedy, who is retired from Southeastern’s English department. “But it’s always best to hear it from the author’s mouth. I can appreciate the humor even though it’s a dark story.”

Maude Sharp, who says she just lives in the neighborhood, is a regular attendee of Gautreaux’s readings, and had a similar comment. “It’s always a treat to hear Tim Gautreaux read his own work.”