Why, Honey? is a short story by Raymond Carver. It is a dark and cold description of a single mother who lives with her son. After years of getting good grades at school, the son starts acting weird, and soon mother’s worries arise. He buys a shotgun and a knife, and the family’s cat, Trudy, dies under suspicious conditions. The mother suspects that the boy is lying all the time. The boy eventually moves out after his mother confronts him over a bloody t-shirt, and as to why he has been out so late recently. He also accuses her of spying.
The letter is addressed to an unknown, presumably male person, who has written to the mother once before. The mother describes how after leaving the home her son joined the marines, got married, got into politics and became a governor. She hasn’t seen him ever since he left the house.
The story ends with the mother’s paranoid descriptions of how she thinks she’s constantly being spied on. She has also moved, changed her name and gotten an unlisted phone number. She ought to be proud of her son, yet she is constantly afraid.
I feel the mother is actually mentally sick and delusional. There is no mention of a murder nor a killer on the loose anywhere in the story. Nothing can be proved. Also, most likely, the unknown man who has written to her is probably her son.