Summary

In “Hawley,” on Loo’s 12th birthday, her father, Samuel Hawley, made her a cake of Ring Dings, shaped like a star. He also taught her how to shoot a gun, her grandfather’s rifle. Loo had grown up around guns and was accustomed to seeing them around the house. She would watch her father at night when he would clean his collection of pistols, rifles, and other guns.

Hawley painted a white mark on a pine tree at which Loo could aim. Loo missed her first shot but Hawley told her that her mother had also missed the first time. Loo’s mother, Lily, had died in a drowning accident when Loo was a baby. Her father had a box of Lily’s things that he set up in the bathroom of every home or motel room in which they...