The Yellow Beret
By Mary Lavin, first published in The New Yorker
After reading about two murders in the paper, a mother panics because her son has been missing since that morning.
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Plot Summary
One morning, Mag and Don wake up to news about two murders in the area; a young girl wearing a now-missing yellow beret and a middle-aged school teacher were beaten to death in separate locations. Already on edge, when they find their son Donny's bed empty, they both begin to panic. Mag contemplates calling the police wondering if he's been in an accident, but in the back of her mind she wonders if drawing attention to his name would be bad given the murders. However, before they can decide who to call, Donny walks in the front door. He explains he couldn't sleep as he's nervous about a big exam at school, so he decided to go for a walk. He shows them a bleeding blister on his foot, and then pulls out the cloth he used to clean it up a bit on his way home. Much to their chagrin, it appears the cloth is in face the murdered girl's missing yellow beret. Hysterical, all three try to figure out what to do with the evidence. Donny heads to his exam and decides he'll devise a better plan later on, leaving his parents in a state of shock.