Summary

The short story “Close to the Water’s Edge” by Claire Keegan follows a Harvard student who visits his mother and stepfather in Texas. 

After the young man’s parents divorced, his mother married Richard, a Republican millionaire. The young man hears them fighting, with his mother warning Richard not to mention something. He then recalls a story from his grandmother’s youth. The grandmother’s wish was to see the Atlantic, but her husband refused to take her. One day, when she was pregnant, her husband finally took her to the coast and let her walk alone on the beach, telling her he would leave without her if she was not back within one hour. The woman arrived five minutes late and stopped her husband, who was about to leave without her. 

In the present, it is the young man’s 21st birthday, which will be celebrated with his mother and Richard at an expens...