Summary

In a third person omniscient point of view, readers learn that Lionel has only made three mistakes in his life. The first mistake Lionel made was wanting to have his tonsils removed so he would miss school. As the narrator begins to recount, when Lionel was eight, he exaggerated a sore throat so his tonsils would be removed. However, the plan backfired when a nurse mistook Lionel for another pediatric patient awaiting a heart surgery and accidentally sent him to Toronto. They sent Lionel home without either a tonsil or heart surgery. The incident followed Lionel for years, barring him from jobs and loans because the filing error was never corrected.

Back in the present where she is still choosing a carpet color, Norma comments that Lionel is like his Uncle Eli, who has a PhD and “wanted to be a...