Hills Like White Elephants

A very short story set at a railway station in Spain. An American man and a young woman wait for a train to Madrid, drinking beer and talking while looking out over the dry valley and distant hills. Their conversation seems light, but it gradually reveals a serious decision between them and a gap in how each sees it. The word that names the matter at stake is never spoken plainly. The story is a famous example of Hemingway's method of leaving meaning beneath the surface.