Bily teaches English at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. In the following essay, she discusses experiences of grief in "The Stone Boy."

When nine-year-old Arnold realizes that he has accidentally shot his brother Eugene to death in "The Stone Boy," his response seems strange: rather than running back home for help, he continues on to the garden as the brothers had intended to do together, and picks half a tub of peas—his share of the job. Only when he has finished the picking does he return home, and only when his father speaks to him does he tell his parents the awful truth: "Eugie's dead." For the rest of the story, as the people around Arnold try to come to terms with what has happened, the fact of Eugie's death seems less troublesome to them than Arnold's first response. They might come to forgive him...