Summary

“In the Event of My Father’s Death” begins with a girl whose father told her that “women weren’t good for much.” (130) Her parents did not love each other, yet her father refused to leave her mother. Her mother would frequently find woman’s earrings on her nightstand, the presence of tacky jewelry seemingly angering her even more than her husband’s disloyalty.

The narrator’s father dated a woman named Teresa. Teresa was a red-head working as a waitress at the bar – like the narrator’s father, she did not expect much from life. Every Saturday, the narrator’s father would use a poorly-constructed excuse that he was taking his daughter fishing. They would arrive at Teresa’s trailer, where she would wear only a silky robe over her lingerie. The narrator would sit in the...