In article <
ea64dca8-c20a-4c88...@googlegroups.com>,
What Runyon uses is the "historical present," in which the
present tense is used *throughout* to portray past events. It is
as if Runyon's first-person narrator (who is not very bright)
doesn't know the past tense exists.
And it works all right, because the guy is using the language of
his place, time, and socioeconomic class.
But there's one story, "The Old Doll's House" (N.B. "doll" means
any female, of whatever age), in which the use of the historical
present suddenly turns itself inside out and expresses what is
eternal.
SPOILERS, in the course of a very short summary, ensue.
....
A young hoodlum is on trial for having murdered a
rival/enemy/competitor and several of his henchmen (which he
almost certainly did).
But at the trial, a little old lady with incredible amounts of
money, and thus respectable, comes in to testify that on the night
in question, having escaped his pursuers by jumping over her wall
and spent the night having drinks and sandwiches at her house,
talking about (inter alia) how she had a young lover whom her irate
father kicked out of the house to freeze to death.
"And at what time does he leave your house?"
"It is exactly twelve midnight, by my old grandfather clock."
Which is within minutes of the time of the murder, which gets the
young hoodlum acquitted.
But, and here I quote:
"But of course it is just as well for Lance that Miss Abigail
Ardsley does not explain to the court that when she recovers from
the shock of finding her ever-loving young guy frozen to death,
she stops all the clocks at her house at the hour she sees him
last, so that for forty-five years it is always twelve o'clock in
her house."