The Parting Gift

One of the short stories in this collection is called The Parting Gift. It is about a girl and her last day in Ireland. She has decided to come to America and leave her brother, Eugene, her mother, and father. The readers get a sense of her final moments in her home and we get a sense of what her living style was like. The family works and lives on a farm. The mother tends to the house while Eugene works in the hay. The story then goes into more detail about her childhood and we learn that it wasn't the best. Her older sister was able to go to the best boarding school and her brother was allowed to work on the farm. The story never fully explains what the girl did with her days but she was denied the chance to go to school.

The story then explains what her father is like. He is an awful man who sexually abused the girl. She would be forced to spend the night with him while he would touch the girl all over. This gave him pleasure and the girl would leave and pretend that nothing happened and it didn't mean anything.

The story draws back to the present as the family sits in the kitchen and the mother forces the girl to say goodbye to the father which brings back the horrific memories of her childhood. The story continues with Eugene driving the girl to the airport. They say their goodbyes and the girl continues to her gate but runs into the nearest bathroom and locks herself in a stall to cry.