Summary

The story is preceded by an epigraph, an excerpt from a poem by Yehuda Amichai entitled "We Did It." The excerpt reads, "We did it in front of the mirror / And in the light. We did it in darkness, / In water, and in the high grass" (233). The story itself begins with similar language: "We didn't in the light; we didn't in darkness. We didn't in the fresh-cut summer grass or in the mounds of autumn leaves or on the snow here moonlight threw down our shadows" (233). The narrator continues to explain all the places and circumstances in which he and his lover, to whom the story is addressed, did not have sex. Many of the places he lists are part of the Chicago landscape, specifically the South Side neighborhood: Marquette Park, the Clark Theater, Oak Street Beach, etc.

The narrator implores the addressee to...