Short

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of pet death and grief.

Short begins seven weeks after the death of Ramon, Julia’s dog, and dogs feature prominently across the novel as a motif that marks how Julia is Processing Grief. At the start of the novel, when Julia’s grief is fresh, she’s “looking all the time for Ramon” (4). She has kept Ramon’s collar, his dog tags, and a wooden carving of him; her parents are concerned about her holding on to these things, a reflection of their concern over Julia’s lingering grief.

Julia is sitting outside “looking up at the sky while thinking about Ramon” when she learns that she has been cast as a Munchkin (19). This foreshadows how her time in the play will interrupt her grief, ultimately helping her move through it. In the weeks leading up to the first show, Julia meets Coco, the terrier who will play Toto in The Wizard of Oz production. The terrier’s presence represents how the memory of Ramon stays with Julia alongside her new memories, even though she is moving through her feelings about his death.

At the end of the novel, Stephen Boyd congratulates Julia after the last performance and invites her to his house to meet his new rescue dog, Phyllis. Rather than resent Stephen’s new dog, Julia is excited to meet Phyllis and doesn’t immediately begin thinking of Ramon. Julia can now live in the present and engage with new relationships and new dogs. In the final scene, Julia gives her wooden figurine of Ramon to Shawn Barr, signaling how far she has come in processing her grief—both over the loss of Ramon and over the end of the play’s run.