Once a Week Won’t Kill You by J. D. Salinger. Short summary

5 seconds

Dickie Camson had to be shipped off to the front. He asks his wife Virginia to take the aunt who raised him to the movies once a week. She grudgingly agrees. Dickie says goodbye to his aunt.

1 minute

Dickie Camson was packing his suitcase before leaving for the front. His beautiful wife Virginia pretended to participate, though she secretly yawned. She didn’t care that her husband was on his way to danger.

Dickie asked Virginia to take his aunt out to the movies once a week. His wife tried to object, to find some subterfuge not to do it, saying the aunt was weird, but Dickie persisted.

Then he went up to the top floor and knocked on his aunt’s door. He hid his departure from her until last. But the time had come. His aunt took the news calmly. She had known long ago that her nephew was going off to war, and had prepared a letter to a military man she knew to take care of the boy.

Dickie talks to his aunt, and the tone of the conversation is warmer than with his wife. They reminisce about Dickie’s parents. It becomes clear that they died on a boat when the boy was very young-he does not remember his father or mother. He was raised by an aunt.

Dickie leaves the room and tears up the letter. He once again reminds his wife of her promise. «Once a week, it won’t kill you,» he reassures her.