They’ve Spoiled My Son

Characters

• Old Durga — Narrator: Was married off at twenty-two to a bridegroom sixty versts away whom she never saw before the wedding.
• Durga’s son — Narrator’s son: Comes home from the war a changed man who shuns the church and bars the priest from the house.
• Durga’s daughter-in-law — Wife of Durga’s son: Gives birth to a son around the Kuar-vös festival and now reads books and newspapers fluently herself.
• Kim — Durga’s grandson: Grows up unbaptized and never ill, with a pair of iron scissors tucked under his pillow.