A Death in the Family Summary

Com­menc­ing with Rufus, a juve­nile, and his sire, Jay, they par­take in a unique bond­ing expe­ri­ence dur­ing an out­ing to the cin­e­ma. Upon return­ing home, they make a pit stop at a tav­ern where Jay indulges in a bev­er­age. Lat­er that evening, Jay is con­tact­ed by his intox­i­cat­ed broth­er, Ralph, who con­veys news of their father’s car­diac event. Skep­ti­cal of Ralph’s reli­a­bil­i­ty due to his ine­bri­at­ed state, yet cog­nizant of the poten­tial per­il, Jay resolves to ver­i­fy their father’s well-being. In the inter­im, Jay’s part­ner, Mary, grap­ples with ani­mos­i­ty towards her father-in-law while pray­ing for the strength to cher­ish him and for her spouse’s spir­i­tu­al awak­en­ing, a con­tentious issue in their union. The sub­se­quent day, Mary noti­fies their off­spring that Jay has gone to see their grand­fa­ther and will be back by night­fall. Jay, how­ev­er, dis­cov­ers that Ralph had embell­ished their father’s con­di­tion, leav­ing him vexed for the futile jour­ney. Con­cur­rent­ly, Rufus’s great-aunt Han­nah takes him shop­ping and bestows upon him a fresh hat. That night, Mary receives a dis­tress­ing phone call indi­cat­ing Jay’s entan­gle­ment in an acci­dent and the neces­si­ty to dis­patch a male rel­a­tive. After an anx­ious inter­val with Han­nah and her prog­en­i­tors, Mary’s sib­ling Andrew con­firms her gravest appre­hen­sion — Jay’s demise, per­ish­ing instan­ta­neous­ly in a vehic­u­lar mishap trig­gered by a mechan­i­cal mal­func­tion. The ensu­ing day, Rufus aris­es glee­ful to exhib­it his new hat to his sire, only to be con­front­ed by the trag­ic news of his father’s demise, leav­ing him and his sis­ter Cather­ine bewil­der­ment. Attired by Han­nah, the chil­dren attend their father’s vig­il at their grand­par­ents’ abode. Sub­se­quent­ly, Rufus learns from Andrew about a splen­did but­ter­fly that had alight­ed on their father’s cof­fin dur­ing the entomb­ment ser­vice, prof­fer­ing some solace. Nev­er­the­less, Andrew’s ire towards the cler­gy­man for declin­ing to exe­cute the com­plete bur­ial ser­vice in light of Jay’s unbap­tized sta­tus prompts Rufus to pon­der whether his uncle also har­bors resent­ment towards Mary and Han­nah due to their reli­gious proclivities.

Chapter 1

Jay, Rufus’s prog­en­i­tor, escorts him to observe a film, notwith­stand­ing his matri­arch, Mary’s dis­sent. Mary deems Char­lie Chap­lin, the film’s lumi­nary, a “vul­gar lit­tle man.” Nonethe­less, the father-son duo rel­ish­es the cin­e­mat­ic pre­sen­ta­tion, with Rufus covert­ly con­tem­plat­ing his lit­er­a­cy abil­i­ties upon sight of the shop signs. Jay, fre­quent­ly denot­ed as “the boy’s father” or “his father,” opts to patron­ize a tav­ern pri­or to jour­ney­ing home. He hoists Rufus onto the counter and extols the boy’s remark­able lit­er­a­cy at his ten­der age. This induces a sense of mor­ti­fi­ca­tion in Rufus, as he per­ceives his sire yearns for him to pos­sess a com­bat­ive spir­it: “You don’t boast about intel­li­gence when your son is valiant.” Jay and Rufus, en route to their domi­cile, pause at a lime­stone out­crop in an unin­hab­it­ed tract. This locale, where they cus­tom­ar­i­ly pause post-movies, serves as a bond­ing junc­ture for them. Rufus dis­cerns his sire’s unhur­ried demeanor and his delight in their shared tran­quil inter­ludes. They sit in silence, gaz­ing at the celes­tial bod­ies and foliage, with Jay par­tak­ing in an affec­tion­ate ges­ture by caress­ing Rufus’s locks and pulling him close. Upon reach­ing home, Rufus over­hears his sire assur­ing Mary he’ll “be back before they retire for the night.” Rufus lat­er suc­cumbs to a pro­found slum­ber. The ensu­ing morn, when Mary elu­ci­dates his sire’s absence at break­fast, he scarce­ly rec­ol­lects the expla­na­tion, ques­tion­ing the fideli­ty of his own rec­ol­lec­tion even in sub­se­quent years.

Chapter 2

In the wee hours, Jay receives an enig­mat­ic call from his sib­ling Ralph who seems intox­i­cat­ed and emo­tive. Ralph hints at their father, Gram­pa Fol­let, poten­tial­ly fac­ing mor­tal­i­ty. Con­sult­ing with his con­sort Mary, Jay resolves to voy­age and inspect the sce­nario. Attir­ing him­self delib­er­ate­ly to avoid dis­turb­ing their slum­ber­ing prog­e­ny, Jay con­tem­plates Mary’s com­pas­sion­ate dis­po­si­tion and his own ambiva­lent sen­ti­ments towards his father, Gram­pa Fol­let. He neat­en the bed ere depart­ing, aim­ing to main­tain its cozi­ness for Mary. While Mary read­ies break­fast, Jay shaves. Upon his return, he encoun­ters an appe­tiz­ing array of vict­uals await­ing, with pan­cakes in progress. Despite lack­ing appetite, he con­sumes vora­cious­ly to demon­strate appre­ci­a­tion. Mary advis­es him to ingest only what he can con­ve­nient­ly man­age, yet he con­sum­mates the repast. They engage in leisure­ly dis­course, with Jay inquir­ing about her birth­day aspi­ra­tions and whether they ought to awak­en the off­spring to bid him adieu. They opt to let them slum­ber. Ere his depar­ture, Mary tucks a pris­tine hand­ker­chief into his pock­et and they exchange a part­ing kiss. Jay grap­ples to com­mence their anti­quat­ed Ford, the engine rum­bling in protest. Sub­se­quent to his depar­ture, Mary retreats to the snug­ness of their bed, rel­ish­ing the warm milk he pre­pared for her, grat­i­fied to dis­cov­er the bed impec­ca­bly arranged.

Chapter 3

Jay departs the metrop­o­lis of Knoxville, tran­si­tion­ing into a pas­toral region replete with dilap­i­dat­ed dwellings. The spec­ta­cle of these impov­er­ished abodes engen­ders melan­choly with­in him. He reach­es the riv­er at day­break and rous­es the fer­ry­man to facil­i­tate his cross­ing. His vehi­cle is embarked upon the fer­ry, and he engages in con­ver­sa­tion with the fer­ry­man. Inter­ro­gat­ed regard­ing his matuti­nal sojourn, Jay divulges his father’s grave state. The fer­ry­man extends his felic­i­ta­tions. As they approach the oppo­site bank, they dis­cern a shroud­ed wag­on. The fer­ry­man con­jec­tures that the occu­pants of the wag­on have been await­ing trans­porta­tion for an extend­ed peri­od. Upon dis­em­barka­tion, Jay pon­ders that the pas­sen­gers of the wag­on are like­ly en route to the mar­ket and are now sub­stan­tial­ly delayed. Advanc­ing fur­ther into the hin­ter­land, he tra­vers­es his “home coun­try.” This famil­iar­i­ty bestows solace upon him, prompt­ing an accel­er­a­tion in his stride.

Chapter 4

Mary grap­ples with rest­less­ness, her rumi­na­tions con­sumed by Jay and his ail­ing father, Gram­pa Fol­let. She acknowl­edges her aver­sion towards the elder­ly gen­tle­man, not stem­ming from con­tempt, as many kin­folk insin­u­ate, but due to his obliv­i­ous­ness to his foibles and the lenien­cy oth­ers extend toward him. This extends to her exas­per­a­tion with Jay’s mater’s peren­ni­al indul­gence towards her hus­band. Anguish bur­geons with­in Mary as she cas­ti­gates her­self for her adverse rumi­na­tions towards a dying man. She intro­spects on his mer­its, such as his benev­o­lence and benev­o­lence. Nonethe­less, she’s inca­pable of over­com­ing her antipa­thy, attribut­ing it to his intrin­sic frailty that impos­es bur­dens upon oth­ers with­out com­punc­tion or aware­ness: “It was a type of frailty that took advan­tage, and imposed dis­ad­van­tage and bur­den on oth­ers, and it was­n’t even con­trite, not even con­scious.” Mary pon­ders the ces­sa­tion of dis­cord with Jay post his father’s demise. This cog­i­ta­tion engen­ders a sense of cul­pa­bil­i­ty with­in her, prompt­ing a fer­vent plea for abso­lu­tion and har­mo­ny with Jay in faith. The prospect of rais­ing their off­spring as Catholics height­ens her anx­i­ety regard­ing reli­gious dis­par­i­ty with Jay, pro­pelling her to repose faith in God.

Chapter 5

In the ear­ly hours, Mary appris­es her prog­e­ny that Jay has embarked on a sojourn to vis­it the ail­ing Gram­pa Fol­let and is antic­i­pat­ed to return pri­or night­fall. She ten­der­ly elu­ci­dates death to them, liken­ing it to a pro­found slum­ber exclu­sive­ly­con­cludes in par­adise. When Rufus inquires about whether their depart­ed pets exist in par­adise, his moth­er con­firms they like­ly do. Sub­se­quent­ly, Rufus ques­tions the rea­son behind death, to which Mary responds that it is a com­po­nent of a vast, incom­pre­hen­si­ble design and that they must main­tain faith in the sagac­i­ty of God nev­er­the­less. Mary explains that God wants indi­vid­u­als “to dis­cov­er him,” with Cather­ine, Rufus’s younger sis­ter, liken­ing it to a game of “hide-and-seek.” This anal­o­gy upsets Rufus, lead­ing him to lash out at Cather­ine, result­ing in her tears. Mary insists that Rufus apol­o­gizes before head­ing off to school.

chapter 6

Jay arrives at his fam­i­ly’s farm, irri­tat­ed by the mis­in­for­ma­tion about his father’s con­di­tion pro­vid­ed by Ralph. evi­dent­ly, Ralph had exag­ger­at­ed the seri­ous­ness of their father’s health prob­lems. The nar­ra­tive shifts to Ralph, who had a rest­less night filled with unease. He con­sumed mul­ti­ple drinks from a whiskey con­tain­er in his office before going to his par­ents’ abode. Attempt­ing to con­sole his moth­er, he only man­aged to push her fur­ther away with his drunk­en­ness thin­ly dis­guised as care. Through­out the night, Ralph repeat­ed­ly imbibed from his whiskey con­tain­er, even­tu­al­ly deplet­ing it. Frus­trat­ed, he banged his head against the house, result­ing in a bleed­ing injury. When he entered the house, his wife and moth­er down­played his obvi­ous dis­tress. This sense of dis­missal made Ralph feel dimin­ished and insignif­i­cant. Ralph har­bors low self-esteem, con­sis­tent­ly seek­ing val­i­da­tion from oth­ers. He is con­scious of his moth­er’s pity and lack of respect towards him. He notices his wife’s appre­hen­sion of him and is con­sumed by self-loathing. He acknowl­edges his flaws and feels inad­e­quate, liken­ing him­self to an infant: “I’m not a man. I’m a baby. Ralph is the baby. Ralph is the baby.”

Chapter 7

Han­nah Lynch, a rel­a­tive of Rufus, reach­es out to Mary while Jay is away, propos­ing a shop­ping excur­sion for Rufus. Mary believes Rufus would be enthu­si­as­tic to par­tic­i­pate, but Han­nah insists on Rufus con­firm­ing his inter­est and sets a 3 pm dead­line for the deci­sion. Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, Han­nah and Mary express relief at the absence of news about Jay, inter­pret­ing it as a sign that noth­ing crit­i­cal has occurred. Andrew, Mary’s sib­ling, inquires about any updates regard­ing Jay’s father, and upon dis­cov­er­ing none, resumes his paint­ing. Rufus has­tens to Aunt Han­nah at his grand­moth­er’s place, affirm­ing his wish to accom­pa­ny her for shop­ping. Though sus­pect­ing Mary coached him, Han­nah detects his gen­uine inter­est. As they pre­pare to leave, they encounter Rufus’s grand­moth­er, who approves of their plan with a pat on Rufus’s cheek. Shop­ping with Han­nah cap­ti­vates Rufus due to her effi­cient and grace­ful demeanor, eschew­ing the haste and inde­ci­sion he observes in oth­ers. He is most­ly indif­fer­ent to Han­nah’s chat­ter, focus­ing instead on the mer­chan­dise, and appre­ci­ates her thought­ful­ness towards him. Han­nah selects gifts for Mary and Andrew, as well as a few items for her­self. Even­tu­al­ly, she offers to pro­cure Rufus a cap, spark­ing his excite­ment. Rufus’s enthu­si­asm ini­tial­ly per­plex­es Han­nah, but his fer­vent response clar­i­fies the mis­un­der­stand­ing. She dis­cerns his inter­nal con­flict between his desire for the cap and his aware­ness of Mary’s dis­ap­proval. Han­nah con­soles Rufus, believ­ing Mary would approve if he gen­uine­ly desired it. Guid­ed by Han­nah, Rufus over­comes his hes­i­ta­tion and selects a vibrant­ly col­or­ful cap, a “thun­der­ous fleecy check in jade green, canary yel­low, black and white, which pro­trud­ed inch­es to either side above his ears and had a siz­able scoop of visor below which his face was near­ly obscured.”

part 1 end

This seg­ment of the tale unveils Rufus’s rem­i­nis­cences as a tod­dler, engulfed in dread of dark­ness and shad­ows in his room. Assist­ed by his father, Jay, who illu­mi­nates the room’s gloomy cor­ners and soothes him with tunes, Rufus is paci­fied. Jay finds com­fort in father­hood, ampli­fied when wel­comed by his wife, Mary, who informs him of Andrew’s depar­ture and gen­tly hints at the con­sid­er­able time he has spent with Rufus. Mary is expect­ing baby Cather­ine, and the two par­ents fre­quent­ly sang “Swing Low, Sweet Char­i­ot” for their son, with Jay adding rhyth­mic vari­a­tions and Mary deliv­er­ing a straight­for­ward ren­di­tion. As the mem­o­ry unfolds, Rufus mar­vels at his moth­er’s expand­ing bel­ly, obliv­i­ous to the joy­ful antic­i­pa­tion of their peers. His moth­er hints at an impend­ing sur­prise but refrains from divulging spe­cif­ic details, leav­ing Rufus brim­ming with curios­i­ty. The entrance of Vic­to­ria, a large black woman with a dis­tinc­tive aro­ma, sig­ni­fies a new chap­ter in Rufus’s life. Despite his fond­ness for her scent, Mary advis­es him against com­ment­ing on it to Vic­to­ria, stress­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of respect­ing per­son­al bound­aries. Rufus pledges com­pli­ance. Even­tu­al­ly, Vic­to­ria escorts Rufus to his grand­moth­er’s res­i­dence, dur­ing which he inno­cent­ly inquires about her dark com­plex­ion. His inquis­i­tive­ness appears to unset­tle Vic­to­ria, who responds sim­ply, “God cre­at­ed me this way.” Rufus’s fur­ther queries about her skin tone dis­con­cert her, but she kind­ly asserts that it is impo­lite to inter­ro­gate black indi­vid­u­als about their skin col­or. To atone for his unin­tend­ed rude­ness, Rufus assures Vic­to­ria he did not intend to upset her. Acknowl­edg­ing his inno­cence, Vic­to­ria reas­sures Rufus, then guides him to his await­ing grand­moth­er’s home, con­clud­ing their jour­ney on a reas­sur­ing note.

Chapter 8

Late in the evening, Mary receives a dis­tress­ing phone call inform­ing her of Jay’s grave acci­dent near Pow­ell Sta­tion. Fear­ful of the worst, she sum­mons her broth­er, Andrew, and fam­i­ly friend, Wal­ter Starr, to inves­ti­gate. She also seeks Aunt Han­nah’s com­pa­ny while await­ing fur­ther updates. Mean­while, she ner­vous­ly read­ies the house, boil­ing water for tea and prepar­ing the bed, while con­tem­plat­ing the vague details shared by the caller. She prays, man­ag­ing only a sim­ple “Thy will be done.” When Andrew, Wal­ter, and Aunt Han­nah arrive at Mary’s abode, the men pledge to pro­vide updates short­ly and depart. Mary and Han­nah share a pot of tea as Mary pon­ders over poten­tial nurs­ing arrange­ments. Guilt wash­es over her as she regrets not inquir­ing fur­ther about Jay’s con­di­tion dur­ing the call. Mary’s father calls to inquire about devel­op­ments, but she has no news to offer. Aunt Han­nah endeav­ors to reas­sure Mary regard­ing her father’s affec­tion for Jay, despite his ini­tial ambiva­lent reac­tions to their courtship. Mary reflects on her father’s shift­ing opin­ions, acknowl­edg­ing the valid­i­ty of his con­cerns. She con­fides in Han­nah about the tri­als and tri­umphs in her mar­riage with Jay, and the new­found har­mo­ny they had dis­cov­ered. As they await fur­ther news, Han­nah empathizes with Mary’s predica­ment, rec­ol­lect­ing her own past tribu­la­tions. They kneel for a prayer togeth­er. Mary express­es her appre­hen­sion that Jay might have already passed away, and Andrew is wait­ing to deliv­er the news in per­son. While exchang­ing fears and hopes, they hear foot­steps approach­ing the house.

Chapter 9

Joel and Cather­ine, Mary’s par­ents, anx­ious­ly await updates about Jay at their domi­cile. Joel seeks to dis­trac­tJoel immers­es him­self in The New Repub­lic, while Cather­ine is engrossed in her needle­work. Cather­ine pro­pos­es accom­pa­ny­ing Mary for sup­port, but Joel deems it unnec­es­sary, as the sit­u­a­tion remains ambigu­ous. He con­fides in Cather­ine that Mary, affec­tion­ate­ly nick­named “Poll” by him, has already turned down their offer of assis­tance. Cather­ine voic­es her wor­ries about Jay’s dri­ving abil­i­ties; pri­vate­ly, Joel agrees, but pub­licly asserts that every­one’s dri­ving can be errat­ic at times. Engrossed in his book, Joel real­izes he does­n’t feel over­whelm­ing grief towards Jay; instead, he expe­ri­ences a deep, per­va­sive sad­ness. The notion of his daugh­ter’s vital­i­ty and intel­li­gence being squan­dered on mun­dane chores and reli­gious fer­vor dis­turbs him. Con­verse­ly, Cather­ine reflects on the con­sid­er­able bur­den Mary and her chil­dren would bear if Jay’s demise is con­firmed. A ten­der grasp between Joel and Cather­ine trans­forms into a moment of mutu­al respect and affection.

Chapter 10

The nar­ra­tive shifts back to Mary’s res­i­dence, where Andrew arrives. Intu­itive­ly, Mary asks him, “Is he deceased, isn’t he,” and Andrew con­firms her appre­hen­sions, dis­clos­ing that Jay passed away instant­ly. Shar­ing a poignant moment of sor­row, they share a drink while await­ing the arrival of Mary’s par­ents. Short­ly after, Wal­ter, Joel, and Cather­ine join them, and Mary express­es her grat­i­tude to Wal­ter before his depar­ture. Sub­se­quent­ly, Joel requests a pri­vate dis­cus­sion with Mary. They adjourn to Jay and Mary’s cham­ber, where Joel offers solace and guid­ance to the mourn­ing Mary. He under­scores the harsh real­i­ty that a peri­od of hard­ship lies ahead, urg­ing her to per­se­vere, par­tic­u­lar­ly for her chil­dren’s sake. Joel reminds her of the uni­ver­sal nature of adver­si­ty and the need to brace her­self for the impend­ing chal­lenges. While acknowl­edg­ing her faith as a well­spring of strength, he cau­tions against using it as a shield. Joel also com­mits to assist­ing with any finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties Mary may encounter. Pri­or to reunit­ing with the oth­ers, Joel reaf­firms his belief in Mary’s resilience.

Chapter 11

Mary and Joel rejoin their fam­i­ly in the par­lor. Mary posi­tions her­self beside her moth­er, Cather­ine, with Andrew strate­gi­cal­ly seat­ed on the side with supe­ri­or hear­ing. Andrew relays that no oth­er indi­vid­u­als suf­fered injuries in the acci­dent, dis­clos­ing that the indi­vid­ual who dis­cov­ered Jay’s body was the one to inform Mary. He recounts the man’s nar­ra­tive of a swift­ly approach­ing vehi­cle fol­lowed by a trag­ic impact. Upon inves­ti­ga­tion, the man found the car over­turned and Jay life­less on the ground. Flag­ging down a pass­ing car, he sought med­ical help. The medic deter­mined that Jay’s fatal injury occurred when his chin force­ful­ly struck the steer­ing wheel, result­ing in an imme­di­ate fatal con­cus­sion. The group detects a loose cot­ter pin in the car’s steer­ing mech­a­nism and a rock bear­ing tire marks in close prox­im­i­ty. Upon deduc­tion, they infer that the dis­lodged pin caused Jay to lose con­trol upon impact with the rock, pre­cip­i­tat­ing his fatal col­li­sion and sub­se­quent ejec­tion from the vehi­cle. The physi­cian under­scores the unfor­tu­nate pre­ci­sion of the impact, remark­ing that a slight devi­a­tion would have been non-lethal. At this junc­ture, Joel inter­rupts Andrew, trig­ger­ing Mary to break down in tears. Amidst her grief, Mary implores for divine for­give­ness, to which Han­nah reas­sures her that her emo­tion­al state is nat­ur­al and neces­si­tates no celes­tial abso­lu­tion. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mary requests a refill of whiskey. Despite Joel’s reser­va­tions about her sobri­ety, she dis­miss­es his con­cerns. Cather­ine endeav­ors to redi­rect the con­ver­sa­tion from Mary’s alco­hol con­sump­tion, pro­vok­ing a burst of col­lec­tive laugh­ter as the group amus­ing­ly inter­prets Cather­ine’s sug­ges­tion as insin­u­at­ing Mary’s des­per­a­tion for a drink. Fol­low­ing a brief spell of laugh­ter, they regain com­po­sure and apol­o­gize to Cather­ine for their reac­tion. Joel recites a solemn line: “As flies to wan­ton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.” Mary dis­sents, prompt­ing Joel to retract his state­ment. Andrew express­es grat­i­tude that Jay avoid­ed a fate of life­long paral­y­sis due to his spir­it­ed nature. The group assents, with Andrew not­ing Jay’s unblem­ished physique and propos­ing “In his strength” as an apt epi­taph, enlist­ing Andrew to inform Jay’s rel­a­tives of his passing.

Chapter 12

Ralph receives a call from Andrew con­vey­ing Jay’s demise, induc­ing feel­ings of guilt as he insti­gat­ed Jay’s fatal voy­age. As a funer­al direc­tor, Ralph offers to man­age Jay’s remains, but Andrew reas­sures him that all arrange­ments are being han­dled. Mary rem­i­nisces about her final moments with Jay, recall­ing his ges­ture of warm­ing her milk to aid her sleep and inquir­ing about her birth­day wish­es. Ini­tial­ly per­turbed by his delayed call and sus­pect­ing ine­bri­a­tion, she quick­ly dis­miss­es the thought, trust­ing that Andrew would not with­hold such infor­ma­tion. Sud­den­ly, Han­nah inter­jects, claim­ing to per­ceive a pres­ence. Mary and Andrew also sense it, prompt­ing Cather­ine to inquire about a poten­tial intrud­er, despite her impaired hear­ing with­out her ear trum­pet. Con­fi­dent­ly stat­ing, “It’s Jay,” Mary engages in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the per­ceived pres­ence. Upon its dis­si­pa­tion, they delib­er­ate on the occur­rence. Joel, how­ev­er, admits to being unaf­fect­ed and would have dis­re­gard­ed it as a fig­ment of imag­i­na­tion if he had expe­ri­enced it. Upon the reap­pear­ance of the pres­ence, Mary has­tens upstairs to the chil­dren’s cham­ber, assert­ing that she could dis­cern “[Jay’s] strength, viril­i­ty, help­less­ness, and utter calm.” Fol­low­ing inter­ac­tion and prayer, she con­cludes with the sign of the cross as the sen­sa­tion of his pres­ence diminishes.

Chapter 13

Return­ing to the famil­ial gath­er­ing, Mary dis­cuss­es the inex­plic­a­ble pres­ence expe­ri­enced by all. Joel express­es skep­ti­cism, prompt­ing Mary to advo­cate that faith serves as the lens to com­pre­hend such enig­mat­ic events and divine prov­i­dence. Andrew con­cedes he may sus­pend his doubts for the night, acknowl­edg­ing his own encounter with an anom­alous pres­ence. Mary extends an invi­ta­tion to Han­nah to stay overnight, a pro­pos­al which Han­nah accepts. Though feel­ing remorse­ful for not extend­ing the same cour­tesy to her moth­er, Mary fears their ani­mat­ed con­ver­sa­tion may dis­turb the chil­dren. After the depar­ture of Andrew, Joel, and Cather­ine, Mary and Han­nah set about tidy­ing up. Mary is struck by the quan­ti­ty of whiskey she has con­sumed, prompt­ing Han­nah to pro­vide aspirin to pre­empt a morn­ing headache. En route home, Andrew and his par­ents find them­selves con­tem­pla­tive­ly hum­ming the hymn “O Lit­tle Town of Beth­le­hem.” Mean­while, Mary and Han­nah pre­pare for bed, with Mary grap­pling with a sense of des­o­la­tion despite her prayers, mourn­ing the loss of Jay.

section in italics 1

Rufus takes plea­sure in observ­ing his school­mates pass­ing by his house on their edu­ca­tion­al jour­ney. Their school uni­forms, vibrant text­books, and packed lunch­es arouse his curios­i­ty. He greets them, with some old­er boys respond­ing warm­ly, occa­sion­al­ly tou­sling his hair. Younger boys often approach Rufus, repeat­ed­ly query­ing his name. Rufus even­tu­al­ly dis­cerns their mock­ery, real­iz­ing they are not tru­ly igno­rant of his name. One of the boys main­tains he does­n’t know Rufus’s name until Rufus con­cedes, at which point they erupt in laugh­ter and chant deroga­to­ry statements.Rhyming, using eth­nic slurs. Rufus inquires his moth­er, Mary, if his name is con­nect­ed with an eth­nic slur, lead­ing to the chil­dren’s teas­ing. Mary reas­sures him that Rufus is a respectable fam­i­ly title, passed down from his Grand­pa Lynch, and advis­es him to pay no heed to the boys. Despite her coun­sel, the boys per­sist in harass­ing him, even exploit­ing his grand­fa­ther’s name to mock him. Per­plexed by their unkind­ness, Rufus opts to not reveal his name again, despite his long­ing for acceptance.

At a lat­er instance, the boys coax Rufus into per­form­ing a song and dance he had learned from his moth­er. Their appar­ent sin­cer­i­ty deceives Rufus into com­ply­ing. The younger boys start hoot­ing and laugh­ing, while the old­er ones scold them, caus­ing Rufus to believe they are on his side. How­ev­er, he lat­er over­hears the old­er boys also ridi­cul­ing him.

section in italics 2

The fam­i­ly, com­pris­ing Rufus, Jay, Mary, Cather­ine, Gram­pa Fol­let, Ralph, and oth­ers, decide to vis­it Rufus’s Great-Great-Grand­moth­er Fol­let, whom they haven’t seen in over a decade. Dur­ing their jour­ney to her res­i­dence, they reflect on her longevi­ty, being born in the ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry, around the same time as Abra­ham Lin­coln. Once they arrive at the aged log cab­in, they are wel­comed by Great-Aunt Sadie, who resides with the elder­ly lady. She dis­clos­es that Rufus is the old lady’s ini­tial fifth-gen­er­a­tion grand­child, a fact that fills her with great joy despite her inabil­i­ty to express it ver­bal­ly. When Rufus meets her, he intro­duces him­self, and though her response is mere­ly a croak­ing noise, she firm­ly grips his shoul­ders and smiles broad­ly. Anoth­er fam­i­ly rem­i­nis­cence sur­faces; Uncle Ted and Aunt Kate, who are dis­tant rel­a­tives but close friends, vis­it from Michi­gan. They bestow Rufus with a book and embark on sight­see­ing in the “Smok­ies.” An event dur­ing sup­per where Ted deceives Rufus into think­ing he can make cheese move by whistling leads to a dis­cord between Ted and Mary, who dis­ap­proves of the trick­ery. Despite Ted’s insis­tence that it was a harm­less prank, Mary remains upset, a con­flict that Jay fails to resolve.

chapter 14

Rufus com­mences his day eager to exhib­it his new hat to his dad. He calls out for his father as he hur­ries to his par­ents’ cham­ber, dis­cov­er­ing only his moth­er, appear­ing “like cracked chi­na.” His moth­er instructs him to awak­en his sis­ter, Cather­ine. When Mary gath­ers her off­spring, she grave­ly informs them that their father won’t be return­ing home as God has sum­moned him. When Rufus asks if his father has passed, his moth­er con­firms, embrac­ing them tight­ly. Rufus grap­ples to com­pre­hend the notion of death. Mary endeav­ors to reas­sure her chil­dren, elu­ci­dat­ing that their bewil­der­ment is typ­i­cal and invites them to pose any queries. She then directs Rufus to assist Cather­ine in get­ting dressed before they head for breakfast.

chapter 15

This seg­ment of the tale is wit­nessed through young Cather­ine’s per­spec­tive dur­ing break­fast. The somber ambiance unset­tles Cather­ine, fos­ter­ing melan­choly and unease. She con­sumes her meal, not due to hunger but due to the under­stand­ing that she must com­port her­self appro­pri­ate­ly in her father’s absence. She finds Aunt Han­nah’s break­fast sounds dis­qui­et­ing and yearns for her father’s return to uplift the spir­its and make every­thing right. She fix­ates on why her father opt­ed for heav­en over com­ing back home. After Han­nah fin­ish­es her meal, she elu­ci­dates to the chil­dren the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Jay’s demise. Jay was dri­ving when he lost con­trol of the car, struck his chin, got eject­ed from the vehi­cle before it veered up an embank­ment and land­ed beside him. She encour­ages them to seek clar­i­fi­ca­tions to ensure com­pre­hen­sion since it’s a con­vo­lut­ed sce­nario for chil­dren. Rufus ques­tions the mean­ing of “emback­mut,” “instint­ly,” and “con­cus­sion,” which Han­nah expounds. When Cather­ine asks about their father’s return, Han­nah reit­er­ates that Jay can­not come home, acknowl­edg­ing the dif­fi­cul­ty of com­pre­hend­ing the sit­u­a­tion. Rufus queries if the con­cus­sion was the cause of his father’s pass­ing, to which Han­nah affirms. Rufus then con­cludes that if the con­cus­sion led to his father’s demise, then it was­n’t God who took Jay away.

chapter 16

Rufus grap­ples with the real­i­ty of his father’s demise, which tran­spired while he was asleep. After dress­ing, he con­tem­plates remain­ing home from school as advised by Aunt Han­nah. Ini­tial­ly, he is relieved to dodge school, yet he also real­izes he will be treat­ed dif­fer­ent­ly due to his bereave­ment. Opt­ing to step out­side, Rufus rehears­es say­ing “my dad­dy’s dead” and divulges this to a pass­ing gen­tle­man. The man, tak­en aback, coun­sels Rufus to return home. Despite momen­tar­i­ly turn­ing back indoors, Rufus soon ven­tures out once more and encoun­ters some class­mates. When Rufus com­mu­ni­cates his loss to the boys, they respond with dis­be­lief and curios­i­ty. The par­tic­u­lars of the fatal acci­dent, involv­ing the father’s car over­turn­ing, are delib­er­at­ed. One boy implies the father was intox­i­cat­ed, a notion Rufus fer­vent­ly refutes. He relays Aunt Han­nah’s ver­sion of the acci­dent, but his expla­na­tion is met with doubt. The school bell sig­nals the con­clu­sion of the inter­ac­tion, and Rufus heads home. Aunt Han­nah chas­tis­es him for depart­ing and assigns him to aid his sis­ter, Cather­ine, with her col­or­ing book. Fol­low­ing a dis­pute over the hue of a cow, Rufus is rebuked and instruct­ed to read a book in soli­tude. In the sit­ting room, he express­es remorse to the vacant room, regret­ting show­cas­ing his father’s passing.

chapter 17

Aunt Han­nah read­ies Rufus and Cather­ine for the day, bathing them and attir­ing them in their finest attire. A call arrives from Father Jack­son, who obtains direc­tions to the abode from Han­nah. The chil­dren are sub­se­quent­ly escort­ed into their moth­er Mary’s cham­ber, where she apolo­gies for her recent absence and pre­pares them for the forth­com­ing view­ing of their depart­ed father. She endeav­ors to help them grasp that he will not return, a notion Cather­ine appears to com­pre­hend. Rufus then ques­tions if they are now orphans, to which Mary clar­i­fies they are not since they still have a remain­ing par­ent. Rufus, nonethe­less, con­vinces him­self that he and Cather­ine togeth­er con­sti­tute an orphan. Short­ly, Father Jack­son arrives, and Han­nah wel­comes him, task­ing the chil­dren with guid­ing him to the sit­ting room. The priest, bear­ing a stern demeanor, rep­ri­mands them for star­ing and imparts a lec­ture on man­ners uti­liz­ing intri­cate vocab­u­lary. Sub­se­quent­ly, Han­nah reemerges and ush­ers Father Jack­son upstairs. Inquis­i­tive­ly, Rufus and Cather­ine stealth­ily ascend to eaves­drop but can only catch the into­na­tion of the con­ver­sa­tion, not the words spo­ken. Father Jack­son’s voice dom­i­nates the dis­course, while the voic­es of Han­nah and Mary remain sub­dued. The sce­nario appears sin­is­ter to the chil­dren, lead­ing them to fan­cy about Father Jack­son’s demise. The priest’s tone then shifts to a melod­ic, sooth­ing cadence as he com­mences pray­ing, enchant­i­ng the chil­dren until the door­bell rings. Alarmed, they has­ten down­stairs to evade being caught eaves­drop­ping and con­ceal them­selves in the sit­ting room. The vis­i­tor turns out to be Wal­ter Starr, who con­soles the chil­dren and awaits with them for Mary. Dur­ing the wait, he shares about his gramo­phone and extends an invi­ta­tion for the chil­dren to vis­it. He extols their father, laud­ing him as indus­tri­ous, brave, kind, and gen­er­ous. The chil­dren are deeply touched­by his expres­sions. Sud­den­ly, a door open­ing is heard from the upper floor.

chapter 18

The tale now shifts its focus to Mary. She sens­es that she is deal­ing with Jay’s pass­ing and under­go­ing a rapid mat­u­ra­tion. As she tries to depart, her legs fal­ter and she crum­ples. Han­nah catch­es her before she hits the floor, while Father Jack­son chants a prayer. Even­tu­al­ly, Mary regains her com­po­sure and ris­es. She leans on Father Jack­son for assis­tance as she exits the room.

chapter 19

Mary, accom­pa­nied by her off­spring, pays homage to the deceased, laid near the hearth in her par­ents’ abode. Rufus scru­ti­nizes his father’s coun­te­nance intent­ly. The trio kneel in devo­tion before the cas­ket, joined by Father Jack­son who offers prayers and a con­sol­ing touch. Han­nah escorts the chil­dren away, leav­ing Mary alone for a moment of prayer with Father Jack­son, to the dis­may of Andrew and Joel wait­ing in the hall­way. Sub­se­quent­ly, Rufus and Cather­ine are led to bid their final farewells to their father in a sep­a­rate cham­ber. Wal­ter Starr then arrives to accom­pa­ny them home. Devi­at­ing from the usu­al path, Wal­ter allows the chil­dren to wit­ness the funer­al pro­ces­sion unfold­ing on the street, believ­ing they would val­ue it in ret­ro­spect. They observe their rel­a­tives depart­ing the res­i­dence and embark­ing on var­i­ous vehi­cles, includ­ing a street­car, for the trek to the ceme­tery. After­ward, the chil­dren are final­ly tak­en to Wal­ter’s abode.

chapter 20

Cather­ine watch­es passers­by from her veran­da when she sud­den­ly inquires, “Where is Dad­dy?” Sens­ing a need for com­pan­ion­ship, she begins a quest, only to find her moth­er and aunt engrossed in prayer. Opt­ing to con­ceal her­self under the bed in a near­by room, she sparks a fran­tic search when she is dis­cov­ered miss­ing, with her moth­er and aunt call­ing out for her per­sis­tent­ly. Upon final­ly find­ing her, she breaks down in tears and seeks solace in her moth­er’s embrace. Andrew and Rufus embark on a stroll that starts in silence, with Rufus observ­ing Andrew’s agi­ta­tion. Andrew con­fides in Rufus that the after­noon bur­ial of the cas­ket, high­light­ed by a but­ter­fly alight­ing on it and remain­ing until it was com­plete­ly interred, reignit­ed his faith in God. The but­ter­fly then soared into the sky, dis­ap­pear­ing from view. This rev­e­la­tion brings Rufus some solace, as he had missed the funer­al pro­ceed­ings. Nev­er­the­less, Andrew’s indig­na­tion returns when he reveals that Father Jack­son did not per­form the com­plete bur­ial ser­vice for Jay, cit­ing his lack of bap­tism. Rufus grap­ples with rec­on­cil­ing Andrew’s aver­sion to reli­gion with his affec­tion for Mary and Aunt Han­nah. Despite want­i­ng to broach the sub­ject, he finds him­self unable to do so. They return home enveloped in quietness.