Sorry for the Loss

“Sorry for the Loss” is a short story, written by English writer Bridget Keehan in 2008.
It is written in third person, from the main character’s point of view. The main character is Evie, who works at a prison as a Catholic chaplain.
The story starts in media res, with the sentence “Evie has to tell Victor his Nan is dead.” We get no background info about Evie or the prison; we just go straight into the story.
As the title indicates, there is a loss in this story. The loss is an inmate’s (named Victor) Nan, who is dead. Victor is a young and good looking boy, and when Evie goes to his cell to tell him about his Nan, she immediately feels sorry for him.
Compared to Evie, who is very religious, and likes to say prayers, whenever she has some spear time, Victor isn’t that into religion. Sure, he is a Catholic, but he is also interested in learning about other religions as well.
The atmosphere in the prison intimidates Evie, and she doesn’t like to be there because of all the loud noises. She is a bit scared of the inmates, because she doesn’t understand how they can do such a thing, which has led them into prison. She has her religious morals, but they don’t.
When Victor gets the news about his Nan’s death, he doesn’t seem to care. Instead he is looking at the pigeons flying around outside his window. They are politely making small talk, until Evie leaves. She doesn’t understand why he didn’t showed any emotions, when she told him about his Nan. In her head, it doesn’t make any sense, that a beautiful and good behaving boy doesn’t show any feelings at all, when told such bad news.
Later on, she talks with an officer, and he tells her, that the reason why Victor is in prison is because he stabbed another classmate, with a butterfly knife.
To Evie, a Butterfly Knife is a weird name for a knife. A butterfly is a harmless and fragile animal, and then it is used as a name for something that can be so violent and destroying?
There are lots of contrasts in this story. One is between Evie and the prison.
Evie is very religious, and she follows the rules. She is a very caring and loving girl and she has never done anything bad. She is very feminine and fragile, which is quite opposite to the prison’s environment. The prison is described as a place that is ice cold and extremely loud and it is surrounded by thick stone walls.
The inmates are also a big contrast to Evie. They are big and strong men, with very manly voices. They have been sent to prison, so they have most likely done something very wrong, which is the direct opposite to Evie, who’d never done anything wrong.
Another big contrast is Victor, himself. His outer doesn’t seem to match his inner. He is described as quite beautiful, a bit young and immature looking. But on the inside, it seems that his soul is not as beautiful. He doesn’t show any feelings towards his Nan’s death, and the fact that he killed another person. His facade covers his real self, which in a way, can be said about the butterfly knife. It appears beautiful and harmless by its name, but it can be oh so dangerous and destroying.