Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly" opens in a city office with two old friends having a visit. Mr. Woodifield is retired ever since his stroke, and his wife and daughters only allow him outside of the house for social visits once a week. Today is one of those social days; Mr. Woodifield has come into the city to visit his friend, the boss, who is older than Mr. Woodifield but still going strong. The two make small talk as the visit draws to a close—Mr. Woodifield admires the boss' office, and the boss reiterates that he has had it recently redone. The mood shifts when Mr. Woodifield remembers something he wanted to tell the boss: that his daughters had found the grave of the boss' son in Belgium, and that it is well-looked after.
The boss barely reacts to the news about his son's grave, but as soon as Mr. Woodifield leaves his office, he is overcome by emotion. The rest of the story revolves around the boss' internal experience, as he prepares to weep but then, perplexingly, cannot. He reminisces about the day he found out his son was killed in the war—the way it ruined him and left him bereft of his dream that his son would take over the business. Then, the boss notices that a fly has fallen into his ink pot. He fishes it out and admires the way the fly slowly and patiently cleans itself of ink until it is ready for life again. But then the boss is seized by a perverse instinct, and proceeds to flick ink down at the fly over and over again until the fly can clean itself no longer. He disposes of the dead fly in the wastebasket. He is suddenly overcome by a great sorrow and fear but he cannot think why; nor can he remember what he was thinking about before he noticed the fly.
