Summary

In the first part of the story, the unnamed the unnamed first-person narrator describes how two Indian men building a wooden ramp for his father’s wheelchair, Sweetwater and Wonder Horse, have a half-conversation / half-argument about the fact that, as Sweetwater says, “Jesus was a carpenter” (209). As he describes their interaction, the narrator reveals that his elderly father is about to come home from the hospital after having his feet amputated. His father’s diabetes, the narrator says, has progressed to the point where not only the amputations were necessary, but that death is imminent. He describes going through the house and finding his father’s secret stashes of sugar and candy, often hidden in very unlikely places.

When the narrator’s unnamed father arrives home, he is helped into the house and settled in. The narrator describes some of the renovations...