Cathedral

The narrator sits on the porch of Frank Martin’s, a treatment center for alcoholics, with a man named J.P. J.P. experiences muscle tremors, which the narrator assures him will eventually stop. The narrator doesn’t mention that he recently saw a man named Tiny have a seizure, even though he nearly completed his time at the facility and was ready to go home. The narrator, who also experiences occasional muscle spasms, wishes he could ask Tiny if there was any sort of warning before it happened.

To keep them both occupied, J.P. tells the narrator stories about his life. He talks about an afternoon when he was 18 or 19, drinking beer at a friend’s house. An attractive chimney sweep named Roxy arrived to clean the chimney. After she finished, she offered J.P.’s friend a kiss, because a kiss from a chimney sweep is supposed to be good luck. Then, J.P. asked for a kiss and she agreed. Smitten, J.P. walked Roxy to her truck and asked her out. They married, and Roxy’s father made J.P. a partner in the family chimney sweep business.

Roxy stopped working and had two children. But J.P. started drinking more heavily for reasons he doesn’t understand. J.