Running in the Family: Kegalle (ii) Summary & Analysis

Mervyn’s chicken farm in Rock Hill is constantly invaded by cobras looking for eggs. Often they make their way into the house and Mervyn or Maureen find them sitting on radiators, countertops, or tables. Whenever they find one, they blow it to pieces with a shotgun. After Mervyn dies, a strange gray cobra appears in Rock Hill. Maureen tries many times to shoot it, but misses at point blank range every time. The gray cobra isn’t aggressive and doesn’t hunt, just wanders around the property or follows one of the daughters. The other snakes seem to fear it and keep away from the farm. Maureen and her daughters realize that the gray cobra is Mervyn, back from the dead to look after them.

In 1971, the year of the Insurgency and the year before Maureen sells Rock Hill, teenage insurgents comb through the countryside, demanding every family’s firearms so the fighters can use them to overthrow the government. They've stolen a registry from a government office and know which families owned which weapons. The insurgents are courteous toward Maureen, and while the leader takes the shotgun and an air rifle, the others start up a game of cricket with Susan and “play[] for most of the afternoon.”