"I want the baby, he said." I've read this story about four times and still don't completely understand what's going on. They're splitting up, that's understandable. And it seems like he's leaving her. But she seems to have issues, so I think it's the girl's fault that he's leaving. I say this because she's hysterical at the beginning, like she knows it's her fault, but is trying to make him stay. Also, the fact that he doesn't think the baby will be safe with her makes me think it's her fault. But where I get confused is at the end. I think that the baby dies. I didn't realize how until I read question number seven. But a baby being split in half seems a bit unrealistic, so what happened then?

"I knew a dog who could do that" (357). I absolutely love Zoe. I feel like if I were her student, I'd actually really like her as a teacher. Plus her sense of humor is great. The only part of the story that I don't understand is the possible-cancer part. I don't really see how that connects with the rest of the story. The whole story is relatively humorous, dry as it may be, and the cancer thing just puts a damper on it. I don't really see what the author is trying to achieve with it, if anything.

"You were his guardian angel" (351). I love how ironic the mom's reaction is. Common sense would say that if a teenager, came home drunk, that their mother wouldn't be very happy. So it should be needless to say that if a child comes home drunk, that the mother would be furious. So her reaction is very ironic. She thanks him, and says that he saved his father. So I'm assuming that this means that the father realizes he's been a bad influence and decides to never drink again. I'm also assuming that the father follows through on this promise because I think that the narrator would have mentioned it if his dad took up drinking again.

"It wasn't fair" (269). I really don't know what to think of this story. All of the other stories that we've read haven't had a flat out bad ending. Some of them have ended weird, or interesting, but never just bad. This one has a bad ending, I mean, a random woman is stoned to death, and the whole town isn't the slightest bit upset about it. I guess this story reminds me of another class I'm taking, Human Geography. In that class, we learn about other culture's beliefs and ideals. Some people in the class will flat out say, "That's just stupid" or "Why would they even do that?" Sometimes we just have to step back and realize that it's a cultural thing, and it just something that they do.