Overview

Cornelius and Bella McCorkle, middle-class and late-middle-aged, return from a trip to Memphis where they buried their oldest son, Chips. Upon their arrival home, the McCorkles find that their youngest son, Charlie, has returned home with his new, pregnant, born-again Christian fiancé, Stacey. While Bella attempts, as she has for quite some time now, to drown her sorrows in a grossly unhealthy diet, Cornelius focuses instead on condemning his children's mistakes and the clearly flawed genes of his in-laws. Tensions rise when Charlie points the blame for his tragic family history back to the "indifferent" fathering of Cornelius himself, in front of Cornelius's old friend Emerson Sykes, and the men depart, leaving Bella alone to hope that maybe Cornelius's fraternal Moose Lodge will straighten everything out.

A part of the collection The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays.