Eileen

Eileen wakes up parked in a snowbank outside her house. The keys are out of the ignition and her purse has been stolen. She assumes her father has the keys and saved her from carbon monoxide poisoning from the broken exhaust pipe. She hurries to get the car into the driveway, worried that the neighbors will notice. Her father won’t open the door, so Eileen crawls into the house through an unlocked window.

Her father tries to punish her like a child and have her read Oliver Twist to him aloud, but Eileen refuses. She reclaims her keys and drives to O’Hara’s to get her father a bottle of gin. She returns home to shower when a police officer arrives. The previous day, her father was caught aiming his gun at the schoolchildren walking home; when confronted, her father agreed to relinquish his gun to Eileen. She notices that her father left a pair of his shoes on the porch for her to lock in the trunk as if she was, “above all, his caretaker, his minder, his prison guard” (167). Eileen accepts her father’s gun, puts it in her purse, and goes to Moorehead.

At work,

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now