Celia is Back by Amy Hempel

This is a story taken from Amy Hempel’s anthology Reasons To Live. There is a third person narration where a simple day has been described between a father and his two children—a boy and a girl. The whole story is about abandonment, forgiveness and returning home; about things being broken and getting repaired subsequently. 

The opening line of the story shows the father teaching his children; imparting life lessons like ‘Luck is where preparation meets opportunity’, ‘Be Simple, be Original, be Sincere’, and ‘What is really the thing?’ His daughter is shown to be drawing a legal affidavit with appropriate column for his signature and the Witness. One can assume that such kind of activity must also have been taught by the father.

The beginning scenes of the story show them working in the kitchen. They are entering for contests and sweepstakes. He is teaching them tricks to beat the odds. These tricks disguise the most important life lessons which the father wants his children to know and follow in their lives. 

Through the whole story, we see the father awakening now and again from his nap. We picturise the children leaving the room and returning. The father has also been away from home for some reason and now he is back with his children and teaching them whatever he can. There are instances of people going away and returning—the father, the son, and the daughter.

The whole story culminates at the drive in of a failing business.  When he reads the sign welcoming Celia on her return to the staff of House of Marlene, the father starts wondering about the permanence of her return. He thinks to himself of Celia’s powers which will bring happiness to the establishment. He is satisfied that everything will be fine what with Celia is back.

The last scene represents the longing which the father festers of fixing things. There is the absence of a mother in the otherwise happy family of three, and there is the inherent sighing which the father has for the return of his loved one. But for the time being, he is satisfied with the return of the beloved employee of House of Marlene.