Reading in the Dark

People in Small Places, June 1958

Once, Katie told the narrator a story about an experience that Tony had while working as a bus conductor. In the story, a man named Sean travels on Tony’s bus, and he carries a briefcase that contains only one baby sock. Sean explains, “The day I find its match, I stop all this travelling” (220). His infant daughter died, and Sean believes that she will not be able to enter paradise until he finds the matching sock. 

Crazy Joe and Mother, October 1958

After he gets out of an asylum, Joe often visits the narrator’s mother. During one of these visits, he “cavorted and performed,” talking about his time in the asylum and the abuse he suffered from the male nurses (223). One day he says, “But for all that, missis, for all that, I never told them your story” (223). The text does not clarify what this story is, but it suggests that the story was the fact that the narrator’s mother dated Tony. 

Mother, November 1958

The narrator’s mother seems to know that the narrator has discovered her history with Tony, and “She kept up a low-intensity warfare” (225).