Come to Me

What is a short summary of the story, Hyacinths, in the collection, Come to Me?

Come to Me

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Hyacinths is the story of a boy named, David, who does not lead a happy life, and probably, the worst day of his life is his sixth birthday. David's father is a cold, cruel man, and his mother passed away while he was young. On David’s sixth birthday, his father gives him a calf to take care of on his own. When his cousins arrive to have dinner and cake, the oldest boy, Willie, is impressed by the calf, but begins touching Walters’s tools and eventually gets into his gun cabinet. David tells him that he shouldn't do that, and when they grab the gun to put it back, they both slip in the mud, and Willie is shot in the chest and killed. David’s father beats him, but Ida takes him away to rescue him and put him in bed. Once in bed, Walter goes into David’s room with a gun to shoot him, a sort of an eye for an eye kind of thing. Walter’s brother, Hiram, won’t let him hurt the boy and takes David back to Duluth, MN with him and his wife, Fritzi.

After living there happily for a while, David receives a note from Walter saying that he's coming to pick him up. David asks Hiram if he can become Jewish like him. The story then jumps to David as an adult, married to Galen with daughters Violet and Rose. He is taking them back to his hometown in Rosebank, to show them where he was born. Stopping at a motel outside of Rosebank on the night they arrive, Galen, Violet, and Rose get in their swimsuits and go to the unlit pool. When David goes outside he hears Rose screaming, jumps in the pool, and saves an almost unresponsive Violet. Galen walks up after the event asking what happened. David is mad at her. He looks up and believes he sees the ghost of his cousin Willie, still as blood as they day he was shot, telling him he was lucky this time.

Source(s)

Come to Me, BookRags