Summary

“Mule Killers” by Lydia Peelle begins with the narrator’s account of his father’s young days. The mother of the narrator, who is now in his thirties, is dead. At the age of 18, the narrator’s father was also motherless and lived with his father on a farm near Nashville. That year, the mules used on the farms were replaced with tractors and were therefore slaughtered, as agriculture was on the verge of modernization.

The narrator’s father was in love with a girl named Eula Parker back then, but his feelings weren’t reciprocal. However, one of Eula’s girlfriends agrees to go out with the narrator’s father to have a soda. At the drugstore, where the two have a drink, Eula also appears. To make her jealous, the narrator’s father kisses the other girl and, as Eula does not react, he takes the other ...