45 pages • 1 hour read
David SedarisA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
When they’re young teenagers, Louis takes Lisa and David to watch a golf match. Golf utterly bores the children, and it seems that their father takes them along in order to get a better spot to spectate from. “First, our father would push us to the front of a large, gaily dressed crowd. Robbed of their choice spots, these spectators would huff and grumble […] ‘They’re kids,’ our father would say. […] ‘Come on, pal, have a heart’” (47). Louis also makes David collect used tees from the green and keeps them as good-luck charms.
While watching the golf tournament, Lisa gets her first period. Louis asks a spectating woman to take Lisa to the bathroom and “outfit her with a sanitary napkin” (49). She reluctantly agrees. Later, David and Louis return to their car, where Lisa is reclining in the back seat. She tells Louis to “go fuck [himself]” (50) but instantly regrets it: “The moment she said it, Lisa bolted upright, as if there might still be time to catch the word […] before it reached our father’s ears. None of us had ever spoken to him that way, and now he would have no choice but to kill her" (50).
By David Sedaris