Cathedral

Edna receives a call from Wes, her alcoholic ex-husband. He asks her to join him at a house he rented for the summer near the ocean from Chef, another recovering alcoholic. After Wes promises he is sober, Edna finally agrees, ending her relationship with her current partner.

After a month, Edna puts her wedding ring back on for the first time since Wes’s alcoholism destroyed their marriage. The days are idyllic, and given that Wes has enough money to keep them afloat, they spend their time in leisure like a new couple in love. Meanwhile, Wes regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with Chef.

One day, Chef tells Wes that the couple must move out of the house because Chef’s daughter Linda needs a place to stay with her son after her husband disappeared while fishing. Agitated and upset, Wes refers to the daughter as “Fat Linda.” Although Edna assures him that they can lives somewhere else, Wes speaks about their relationship as if it will end with the summer, and he is grateful for the time they had. Edna wonders what it would be like if they could pretend that Wes’s alcoholism never tore their family apart. Wes replies, “Then I suppose we’d have to be somebody else if that was the case.