Returning Home
...njoy a sexual relationship between each other. Patrick was in love with Clara and Clara had some interest in Patrick but she always thought of Small. Shortly after Clara introduces her friend Alice Gull to Patrick, Clara leaves in search of Small. She tells Patrick never to follow her, to which he promised. Alice Gull lets Clara and Patrick stay at her house, out in the country side. He enjoys his time up at the house and enjoys the company of both women. Alice and Clara share a long history but it is never revealed to Patrick, he understands sometimes the company of another woman is all a woman needs. He has to leave return to the city leaving the two ladies there. Clara returns a couple of days later then eventually leaves to find Small. When Clara left for Small, Patrick took their breakup hard. He longer cared to find Small for money but now he wants to find Small to tell him how he feels about Clara and to take her back. He lives by himself for a couple of years with the iguana Clara left him with. He runs in Alice. She sees how distraught Patrick is. She tells him if he wants to find Clara, t o go visit Clara’s mom. While at Clara’s mom’s house is tells him that Patrick would have been good for her. She also tells him where Clara and Small are at. They were at the last place he’d look. She he heads back home. To the place he told Clara about, his hometown. He finds Small first. Thinking Patrick is there to take him into for the reward money, Small attempts to burn Patrick. Patrick runs to the river to extinguish his flames. The next day Clara meets him by the river bank. Because Small thinks that Patrick’s there for the money, Patrick doesn’t speak to either of them. Needing money, Patrick goes to work as a clay digger for the water works project. He realizes he has become one of those people he watched in the morning who’s pass by his house. The one’s who have nothing to do or in common with the community primarily because they were there only for a short amount of time. Then one day after a very touching performance he runs into Alice again. They begin a relationship. She cares for Patrick but she is also very cautious about the relationship because of what occurred with her former lover, Cato, and she has her daughter Hana to worry about. She thinks about Cato but she doesn’t’ like to talk about him. During one of their conversation’s Patrick realizes that the immigrants who he thought were winter’s fireflies were actually part of Cato’s life. Clara tells Patrick of Cato’s birth and how his father had to skate on the river to find the doctor. He couldn’t believe something so minor from his childhood would come back to him. Eventually Patrick learns that he died fighting in war that took plac...