Lawns
By Mona Simpson, first published in The Iowa Review
When the father of a college-aged girl, who works in a mail center and has taken to stealing her classmates' mail, comes to visit, he sexually assaults his daughter, as he has been doing since she was a young girl.
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Plot Summary
Jenny works at the mail center at Berkeley, where she attends college, and steals the mail of her high school classmates, reading their letters and eating the cookies sent by their family members. She is called into the Employment Office along with her coworkers about the incidents of stealing, but she refuses to confess. She decides she will no longer steal mail. She wants to go to medical school and cannot risk it. She does not tell anyone about her stealing, even her boyfriend Glenn, who she met after she saw him mowing the lawns at Berkeley. When Glenn was little, he had an obsession with twirling around with a big stick and had to see a psychologist about it. Jenny is supposed to have a date with Glenn, but her dad surprise visits her and ruins her evening plans. Jenny's dad takes her back to his hotel and rapes her. He tells her he loves her. He has been doing this to Jenny since she was a little girl. When she was a preteen, he took her camping and had sex with her for the first time. Jenny feels bad about their relationship because her father always pushes her little brother Danny out of the picture. After her dad leaves, she calls her mom and tells her that her dad has been molesting her all her life. Her mother leaves her father and forces her dad to go to a psychiatrist, though she does not press charges. When Jenny tells Glenn about her father, he breaks up with her. When Jenny tells her roommate Lauren, she is supportive and hates Glenn for breaking up with Jenny. After a while, Jenny sees Glenn again and he has a new girlfriend. Jenny feels better knowing that her father cannot have her anymore, though she feels more alone. She starts stealing mail again and sees a letter addressed to her while she is working. She knows who it must be from and throws it away. Then, she takes it out of the trash and puts it in her mailbox so she can receive mail like anybody else.
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