The Red Convertible

            This short story was written in 1984 by Louise Erdrich.  This story is all about two brothers and the relationship and hardships they both endure before and after the older brother, Henry, was drafted into the war in Vietnam.

            The younger brother, Lyman, was very good at making money, and he and Henry went splits on a nice shiny new red Oldsmobile convertible.  They took this car and went on a road trip to wherever they felt like, at one point they were even in Alaska.

            After Henry gets back from war, he is in an extremely bad mental state, he rarely talked to anyone and he never mentioned the Olds.  Lyman decides he was going to do something about it to try and get his older brother back.  Lyman beats the ever living crap out of the car, puts dirt in the engine and ruins the upholstery and when Henry is shown the state of the car, he gets extremely mad at Lyman and locks himself in the garage to work on the car.  Finally, Henry gets the car back in working order and has it looking like new.

The two brothers take the car for a drive and take a break at a river and have a few beers, when Henry decided to take a swim in the river and was drowned by his boots filling with water. After Henry drowned, Lyman put the car in gear and let it drive itself into the river.

I find this story very inspiring and very sad.  The end of the story shocked me greatly, right as the two brothers were getting along and as Henry was getting better, tragedy struck and he died.  This ending was extremely surprising.