"Stop Testing Fate"

Jessica Gordon
AP English
Short Stories:
“The Lie” by T. Coraghessan Boyle: Published April 14, 2008: The New Yorker


“Stop testing fate”

He was unfulfilled with his life and possibly not ready for the responsibility of being a father. She was tired; the baby kept her up each night, yet rationale was still part of her daily routine. His boss assumed again, “are you sick today?” He was still unfilled with his life: he missed his pre-baby days and the days where responsibility was minimal.
This short story by Boyle surrounds the life of a new father, Lonnie, and his internal struggle to balance the multiple responsibilities in his life as well as keep sane with all of the things he is counted on to complete. His wife, despite her tired, wornout nature, has it together: she cares for baby Xana and still manages to find time to drink margaritas with friends and relax.
Boyle, instead of merely stating that Lonnie is overwhelmed, takes the reader on this father’s emotional rollercoaster to show that sometimes people aren’t ready to take on life. The short story encompasses Lonnie’s lie after lie about why he can not go into work on a given day. He had already used up his sick and personal days; however, he could just not get himself to go to work. The lies started innocent: his daughter was sick. Then they take a convoluted path from his daughter is in the hospital, has Leukemia, and finally…. Died. I stop reading for a minute because I live by a very strict rule: you cannot test fate. I spend the rest of the 5 pages in the short story worrying that something bad will happen to the father or the baby. Although it is fictional, it makes me cringe when I read about the myriad of lies. What guilt would this innocent dad, who clearly doesn’t mean to hurt anyone or ruin anything, have if something happened to his baby? Boyle describes Lonnie’s compulsive lies as similar to “bile leaking out of a liver gone bad.” This figurative language depicts Lonnie’s uncontrollable problem: he didn’t mean to test the fate of his newborn child; he just needs an escape, an escape from this new life, and an escape from the stresses of having a wife, child, and a demanding job.
As I finished this short story, I came to the conclusion that is was one of my favorite short stories. Boyle’s ability to depict the life of a stressed-out, scared father through innocent lies that turned dangerous and corrupt demonstrates that sometimes people are not ready for life; however, embracing that life to the best of one’s ability is the best way to get through. I want to tell Lonnie something, “Promise you will never test fate again.”

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