The following version of this story was used to create this study guide: Banks, Russell. Trailerpark. HarperPerennial, 1996, p. 94-103.

The story begins with the narrator describing the heat of the late summer and its effect on a trailer park. The residents began the day slowly. One old man welcomed the day by swimming in the lake. Other residents left the trailer park to go to their jobs in the nearby town. An old man noticed a young black fisherman preparing his boat for a day on the lake. The young man brought his fishing gear, even though the old man warned him that the hot weather meant trying to fish would be fruitless.

After preparing his fishing boat, the young man waited for a young blonde woman to arrive. When she departed from her trailer, which belonged to her mother, the manager of the trailerpark, the young woman greeted the old man and entered the young man’s boat. The man pushed the boat into the lake, entered the boat, and began to row while the girl applied tanning lotion.

After some time spent in silence, the girl started a conversation with the young man. She confessed that she had told her mother something that was supposed to be a secret about her and the man. The man expressed his concern, predicting the worst-case scenarios. The girl tried to be more positive, but the man rejected her consolations and declared that he wanted to leave her on the lake. After a fruitless day of fishing and a build-up of tension in their relationship, the man and the girl returned to the trailer park, which was as hot and silent as it was when they had departed.