Summary

The short story “The Gift” by Karen Phillips begins with the narrator being told by her daughter, Elly, that her father Ron is getting married. The narrator tries to process the news while Elly asks her if she is going to buy a wedding gift.

Elly tells her that Ron’s future wife, Amelia, painted the back door pink and put up a rack for boots and that she and Ron will go to Bali for their honeymoon. The narrator recalls that Elly told her how Ron met Amelia in a health food shop and how the narrator was surprised that her ex-husband found somebody new.

She remembers seeing Ron with Amelia for the first time in a supermarket and being surprised by how different Amelia was from her. The narrator thought then that she and Ron never really knew each other....