The Unfinished Yawn

About the story

A night-shift proofreader discovers that at the top of every yawn she hears a stranger’s last thought, just before they vanish. Trying to stop the yawns only makes things worse.

This guide assumes everyone has finished the story, so it discusses the ending.

Character map

• Nora Hale hears, then traps Walter Pruitt
• Nora Hale holds back The unfinished voices
• The calm voice persuades Nora Hale
• Nora Hale keeps The notebook
• The unfinished voices waits with The calm voice

Who’s who

Nora Hale · Protagonist

Six years on night shifts, exhausted, and the only one who can hear the vanishing.

Walter Pruitt · The first voice

Vanished from his kitchen in Duluth with the stove still on. His thought gets trapped mid-sentence.

The unfinished voices · The trapped

Hundreds of small, interrupted last thoughts pressing behind Nora’s teeth.

The calm voice · The appetite

Whole, kind and clear. It speaks directly to Nora and tells her she can stop holding it.

The notebook · The record

Nora’s list of every last thought she heard.

Themes to look for

• Exhaustion

  Nora’s lack of sleep is both the cause of the yawns and the cost of fighting them.

• Witnessing

  Nora writes down the last thoughts because ‘someone had to remember them.’ What do we owe the people we cannot save?

• The smallness of last thoughts

  No one thinks about dying at the end. They think about stoves, dogs and crosswords.

• Good intentions gone wrong

  Stopping the yawns doesn’t save anyone. It traps them.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Nora find the ordinariness of the last thoughts harder to bear than terror would be?
2. Other passengers on the bus see the empty seat and look away. What is the story saying about how people handle what they cannot explain?
3. Nora realizes she ‘had not been saving anyone. She had been keeping them.’ How does this change your view of her efforts?
4. What is the ‘calm voice’ at the end? A victim, the hunger itself, or something else?
5. How does the story make a yawn, something everyone does, frightening?
6. Nora’s own last thought is ‘I should have let myself sleep.’ What does that line mean on more than one level?
7. Why do you think she keeps the notebook, and why does the story end on it?
8. Does Nora have any real choice in this story? Where, if anywhere, could she have changed her fate?

Craft corner

For writers in the group. Each term links to the writer’s glossary.

• Motif: Track the repeated phrases (‘Did I leave the stove on?’). How does repetition build dread?
• Twist ending: Did you expect Nora to be taken? Look back for where the story hinted at it.