65 pages 2 hours read

Helen Oyeyemi

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2016

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Story 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 5 Summary: “Presence”

Jill Akkerman and Jacob Wallace have come to a rough spot in their marriage. For weeks, Jacob has been wanting to have a conversation that Jill has been avoiding because she is convinced that he is going to break up with her. They are both therapists, so she assumes she can identify signs that he is growing tired of their relationship; she also speculates that he is interested in his colleague Viviane, called Vi. They have both been married multiple times: Jacob once and Jill twice. They have Vi over for dinner; while Vi is out of the room, Jill tells Jacob that Vi has a crush on him, but he dismisses the idea. Jill and Jacob have known each other since childhood, when they were both in the foster care system.

Jacob eventually confronts Jill while they’re on the Tube. She reminds him that it was his idea to get married: He’d always wanted to marry her, and when he asked after her breakup with her last husband, she rejected the idea. He asked again the next day, singing a Korean love song called “What’s Wrong With My Age?”; she finally accepted. The two of them now reminisce about the proposal, and Jacob sings the song again.