James got shot in the leg one night at Dandy Donuts, drove himself to the hospital, had a doctor remove the bullet from his thigh and inject him with penicillin, drove back to Dandy’s, beat the man who’d shot him into a coma, then started in on the night-shift workers who’d watched it happen.
This sort of outside characterization of James is not only engaging but also hilarious.
I knew what would come next.
I just want to say that this whole encounter makes me feel like they are about to shove him into the oven to cook him up.
She'd always been a bit of an odd girl, and none of them saw her anymore now. Apparently she'd had a little boy, and of course he'd be half Lebanese. Shirley knew she couldn't take that, personally, but to each his own.
Shirley comes off sweet and humble at the beginning of this exposition, but more and more it is revealed that she may be a bit arrogant, a bit colonial, and somehow a bit of a "pick me"
Once, paging together through pictures of dresses, she became so frustrated with me that she disappeared into the bathroom for almost an hour. Finally I knocked on the door. "Mommy? I left it open to the one I like." I heard water running, and when she came out she caught me around the shoulders and held me against her, my face nuzzling her stomach. "That's my good girl," she whispered above my head. [End Page 24] One afternoon was spent sewing, another polishing silver. The cooking lessons took on new vigor, and she had me reducing wine-based sauces, braising meats, and chopping fresh herbs for most of the day. Dad would come home, see everything that had been set out on the table and everything that still simmered on the stove and roasted in the oven, throw his hands up in the air and say, "I don't know how you expect us to consume all this, Donna. Maybe you could lay off her a bit." But then he'd sit down and attack the food with an appetite that had the air of duty, sighing and unbuttoning his pants for dessert.
Both of these situations make it seem as though both parents are prepared to go through with the marriage, were happy to have her engaged, and yet seem very displeased with what is required to prepare their nine year old daughter for marriage, as if they hadn't thought of that.
Mr. Middleton tells me anything I ask.
She makes it clear that they've been married for sometime now, and she still refers to him as Mr. Middleton
I pushed a chair to the cupboards and climbed onto the countertop.
This action seems to help characterize our narrator as extremely young - she has to climb up onto the counters to grab what she was asked.
my eyes fixed on those etched histories.
He knows that the happy memories he has with his father are going to be part of his history, no longer part of his present.
the look in her eyes soft—Let me help build you
This line calls the reader back to his mother, earlier in the story, asking him to come back home "the man she built".