summary of the first short story: 'THE CARD'

'The Card' is a short story written by the American short-story writer James Ross. It speaks about the feeling of a young boy who is born in a family that consists of his mum and dad and his sister Laura. On his tenth birthday, he received a birthday card from his father who disappeared later from the house and abandoned his own family.

The young boy's name was Mickey; he could barely remember his father, the only thing that he remembered was the birthday card which his father had given him and which he deeply cherished. He always kept reading the card from time to time trying to figure out something about his father's character from the lines which his father had written to him on his birthday card.

Occasionally, he kept asking his sister Laura and his mum about his father whom he really missed a lot. He went on asking them several times about how his father was like and how he looked like and why he had left them and deserted his own family without saying a word.

The reason for his father's disappearance is never known to the reader. The reader is left to guess for the cause of his disappearance. Mickey had always asked his mother too about his father but she had never given him a satisfactory answer to all of his questions and he had never received a convincing reply to all his inquiries about his father from any member of his family.

His mother had fallen for a drug addict with whom she had a complete a full relationship and whose presence in the house was always unwelcomed by both Laura and Mickey. This relationship had come to an end after the man was arrested by the police who had received a phone call from Mickey upon the discovery of a packet of cocaine hidden under the stairs of their house. Mickey was so much relieved after the man was arrested and he sincerely and deeply wished that his father would come back home.