Complicity

Complicity

By Tim Parrish

            Back outside, a wasp hovered over the hedges lining the sidewalk, then disappeared. Once, I had reached into the bushes to retrieve my football and grabbed a whole nest.  I remembered them boiling toward my fingers.

            The short story, “Complicity” by Tim Parrish I found indeed quite complicated.  I couldn’t figure out why Mr. Parks was the way he was, using physical violence as an active parental discipline technique.  I did not understand how Bob befriended Mr. Parks who helped him get a job as a police officer when his father despised him.  I have outlined the quote above and chose it as one of necessity because I wanted to focus on the placement in which the author put it.  A day after the “in home invasion attack” on Mrs. Parks, we find Mr. Parks sitting outside the house with a shotgun by his side.  Jeb was then reluctantly invited into the garage of a man’s home that doesn’t even like him.  “I had reached into the bushes to retrieve my football and grabbed a whole nest”.  It’s an analogy you see, and a hint from the author of who committed the crime.  Jeb had reached into the bush knowing only that his football was there not expecting to be in the center of danger from the wasps.  This very similar situation can be applied to Jeb walking to the garage of the one who committed the crime against Mrs. Park, which would only lead to Mr. Park.  And I found that to be so interesting for the Parrish to sneak that in there like that.  I had to read the story a couple of times to confirm my belief in it being Mr. Park who beat his wife.  Although obvious in early pages where Jeb was playing basketball outside and heard the ruckus only to see Mr. Park leave in a haste off to work, this little flashback of something totally different and yet, all the more similar confirmed that it was in fact Mr. Park.  And I wonder why now?  Was it because Mrs. Park had walked out when Mr. Park was abusing the children outside?  Making him son hit Jeb and then making them kiss before releasing them?  Was this some sort of point he wanted to make to her and everyone else that this is what he could do if you crossed him?  All of these questions are left unanswered because we know that he did it, and yet if he wanted everyone to know he would have let them be aware of his crime.  But he didn’t.  He acted as though he was going to be the protector; he was going to keep his family safe when the only unsafe person here was him.