Summary

The narrator is reminiscing about her childhood while telling untruthful stories to her lover, Jesse. She first remembers the death of her cousin Tommy, at eight, who accidentally hanged himself in the barn of her aunt’s farm swinging from a rope. Her mother turned her eyes away from the scene. The narrator doesn’t tell Jesse the truth about her childhood, though, because Jesse think everyone had a “fairy tale” life like Jesse herself did (9). The narrator lies to Jesse about what her grandmother smelled like, saying “Like lavender” and worrying she will get caught in the lie (9). Jesse tells the narrator she is lucky to be part of a large family.

The narrator continues describing her family, specifically her cousins. Many met gruesome ends like her cousin Tommy. Many of these cousins were forgotten, simply because there were so many...