genesis 2018 final digital.pdf


The Death of Great Aunt June
Anna White

Mark sat with his hands hanging between his knees, his back slumped.  

stole a glance towards the grand entrance of  the cathedral to his left, and 

towards the front of  the room during mass, and to pay attention, for God’s 
sake.  For their own sake, the siblings chose to occupy the last pew by the 
door.  Mark shifted his weight.  The priest was talking, but he was deaf  to 
his words. The last time he tried to pay attention, the man was speaking 

have worn it, or if  he had overdressed.  It was hard to tell how formal you 
had to be for a dead woman in a casket.  That morning, when his mother 
presented him with the tie, she hissed something to him about respect, and 

his attire anymore.

she stared towards the front of  the room, tucking a strand of  blonde hair 
behind her ear.   

were just bored.”

Mark shot back that he was older, therefore wiser.

“What?”

Mark grunted.  The two sat and looked towards the shiny casket and 

Older brothers could show no fear.  Now was the end of  an era.  It was 



The Death of  Great Aunt June
self  slipping further away from it every moment.  He eyed the glossy, black 

nerals.  For an eerie moment, he imagined her, sitting in the pews, staring 

“I bet you won’t graduate from high school,” Mark said.  He remem

ground as she struggled across the monkey bars, blonde pigtails swinging.

ahead.  Mark couldn’t read her expression.  He thought about the time she 
poured a glass of  ice water on his head when his alarm for school didn’t go 

“At least you won’t be late,” she had 
told him.

From the corner of  his eye, Mark saw his sister’s hair, and how the sun 
shined through and around it, a halo of  light.  He wondered when it was 
she took her pigtails out for the last time, never to put her hair up like that 

away. 

Mark shook his head, and his hair fell in his eyes.  “Time’s a bitch,” 

up.  
“Come on,” she said. “We don’t have all day.”  From the pews, she 

looked older to Mark, with her hair pulled back and her hands on her hips.  
“The bitch probably wants us to get going.”

weekends and the holidays, and hearing her voice over courtesy phone 

for him to hurry up as her footsteps faded.  Mark faced the rows of  pews