Yours by Mary Robinson

            "Yours" by Mary Robinson is a story of an evening in the life of a couple struggling to come to grips with cancer. Allison and Clark spend the evening carving pumpkins and then bickering about whose is better. Later on, after the enjoyable evening with the pumpkins, Allison begins to die.
             The story begins with Allison lugging the pumpkins out of her car. The symbolic meaning of the pumpkins is already apparent in this first line. She is "struggling away" from her car "limping with the weight" of the pumpkins, just as every person struggles with such a horrible, deadly disease. Allison is married to a much older man, 43 years to be exact, and a symbolic description of their relationship can be found when the narrator says "She found Clark in the twilight". We also learn very early on that Allison is wearing "a natural-hair wig", a revelation and foreboding of things to come.
             Allison tells Clark to tone down the creativity and make a "regular face" on the pumpkins and then moves on to check the day's mail. Here we find out a little more about the characters and their relationship. Included in the mail is a bill from a liquor store, another sign of struggling to come to terms with her disease. There is also a letter from Clark's relatives calling him "an old fool" and informing him that he is being "cruelly deceived". We get more clues later of the fact, but it is safe to assume that Clark is wealthy (they also have a maid to make him dinner), and the relatives believe that Allison is a young woman after his money. How ironic that she is the one with a life-threatening disease.
             In the next paragraph the carving of the pumpkins takes place. The very important fact that Clark had been a doctor, an internist, is mentioned (in passing) here. The description of Clarks pumpkins are "ferocious and jagged", "surprised" and "serene and beaming". This could possibly be a description of Clark's feelings toward Allison's dreadful disease.