Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is probably my favorite modern short story. The story itself isn't that wonderful- a man and a woman are at a train station having drinks. That's about all that happens. What's so great about it is the structure that it was written in. It's literally like somebody opened up a book of a novel to a couple of random pages and only read a portion. There is very little exposition/forshadowing; and what's there is well hidden. As the reader, you're complimented in the sense that the author assumes you have the competency to figure out what's going on.
"Letting the air in" refers to the woman having an abortion
"Hills Like White Elephants" exposes that the woman is thinking about children and possibly keeping the baby...which means she probably shouldn't be drinking...
The lack of cohesion between the man and woman, seen by their touch and go tone of voice, foreshadows the fact that this relationship will be short lived. Modern short stories engage your creative comprehension more than a full length novel because you have to do the work of writing the first and last of the chapters in your head. Love it.
