So Long, See You Tomorrow

The narrator’s family enjoys trips to the countryside in a horse-drawn carriage with their family friends, the Donalds. Dr. Donald and the narrator’s father are both landowners. On the country drives, the narrator likes to look at the houses, which are modest in comparison to his city dwellings. He thinks of the differences between Cletus’s rural upbringing and his own more urban background.

The narrator reflects on the history of Logan County (which includes Lincoln). Settlers passed land on to heirs who increasingly owned but did not farm their properties. He notes that landowners enjoy higher social status than tenant farmers. But these social considerations never occurred to the narrator and Cletus when they played together as friends.

In the present, the narrator wishes he could explain himself to Cletus but admits Cletus probably would not remember him. The only place he can connect with him is in the past. He acknowledges that his story will be a mix of fact and fiction. He asks the reader to imagine a deck of cards. Each card is a fragment of Cletus’s life. Envisioning the past will be like turning over one card at a time.

His first invention is a dog for Cletus. He notes the close connection between boys and dogs. He imagines the dog waiting for the boy to come home from school on his bicycle. The dog is eager and proud when Cletus returns and follows him up to the house. She is not allowed inside and stays on the porch. Cletus enters the kitchen, which the narrator imagines in detail.

The Smith and Wilson families are close. Cletus has a rewarding relationship with Lloyd Wilson, who teaches him farming skills. He goes hunting with his father and Lloyd. Sometimes Lloyd puts his hand on Cletus’s shoulder, which gives him a sense of security and loyalty. Lloyd and Clarence are best friends. They help each other with farming tasks. Clarence once spent all night tending to Lloyd’s sick calf.

Both men are tenant farmers. The Smith’s farm belongs to Colonel Dowling. He is a gentleman who behaves respectfully toward the Smith family. But if the Colonel brings a friend from town to the farm, he stresses his ownership of the property. This seems to affect Cletus more than Clarence.

Cletus has a younger brother named Wayne, and they are different from one another. He also has an Aunt Jenny, who raised his mother. Aunt Jenny is proud of the house she owns in town. Her house is near the Smith farm, which she visits often.

A hired man named Victor Jensen works on the Smith farm. On Decoration Day, he goes into town and has a weekend-long alcohol bender. Clarence and Cletus find him passed out in a ditch. He is back at work the next day, hungover.

Cletus is late to milk the cows after school one day. He explains that his teacher kept him late to retake a math test. His father doesn’t care about school, he just wants Cletus to grow up and work on the farm full-time. The narrator then imagines a succession of brief moments involving Cletus, his parents, Lloyd, his brother, and his dog.

One morning while dressing for church, Clarence notices he has no clean shirts. He is angry at Fern for not performing her duties. At church, the preacher delivers a sermon on the Parables of Jesus. Fern has a sad expression on her face after the service that is obvious to others but not to Clarence.