User:DoctorWho42/Ogre!

"Ogre!" is a short story by American author Edward Jesby. It was first published in the September 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
Previously, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published Jesby's "Sea Wrack" in May 1964.

Plot
The ogre sleeps. He wakes to the sound of birds. It is spring morning. He wonders how long he slept. He senses danger. He emerges from a highway turnpike, but the cars take no notice of him. Knut talks with a bluejay. It goes to sleep in his hand. A car swerves to miss the ogre and loses a front tire. Knut gets up and tears a door off. He pulls the man out. The man pleads for his life. Knut speaks Middle English. Knut learns his name is Harry Breen. Breen mistakes it as "New Okra." Breen complains he owes Gianetti $16,000. Knut reinstalls the door and a new tire. Breen takes Knut to his apartment. Breen cuts Knut's hair with tinsnips. Breen calls Flo to make Knut new clothes. Two men show up with Flo hostage. Knut dispatches both. Flo works on Knut's new clothes. They stay in a cabin by a lake to avoid Gianetti. Breen teaches Knut how to talk. Flo worries about Breen. Knut tells her he'll help. In the afternoon, they go to the racetrack. Breen gets six hot dogs. While Breen and Flo eat, Knut tells them they interfere with his aural radar. Knut chooses two horses as the winner and the runner-up. The first race proves Knut correct. Breen goes to collect which takes a while. Gianetti's men tell Breen his debt will be forgiven. Knut smells something intoxicating. There is a maiden six feet above the floor. She distracts Knut but he focuses on the second race. Knut selects another winner. Breen goes to collect again, but doesn't return. Flo becomes worried. Knut and Flo find Breen in the parking lot between two men. Knut runs at one of them and they take out a stiletto. It stabs Knut in the shoulder muscle. The second men takes out a gun, but Knut throws the knife-wielder at him and they both die. Knut prepares to eat them, but the maiden comments on the knife in Knut's shoulder. Knut takes it out. The maiden attends to Knut's wound. Knut asks her name. She is Inge/Ingeborg. Later, Breen argues with a customer about what's on the colour television. Flo works as a waitress. Breen fills the man's drink and tells him he owes everything to New Okra. On the colour television, Knut sings a Finnish beer-making song while Ingeborg plays guitar.

Reception
In 1968, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Edward L. Ferman remarked "Mr. Jesby's ogre is an entirely different ogre, and his adjustment to our real world seems as logical as it is entertaining." In 1970, Analog Science Fiction and Fact's P. Schuyler Miller commended "[Ogre!] wakes up one of the mythical monsters in our time and finds a job for him, in best Unknown style."