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Show Motherlunge a novel 241 store-one the other side. The green Kwik In 'n Out sign faced the metal cutout letters, SUPERNAL CITY CEMETARY, arranged in an arch over the entrance. The three of us drove slowly on the muddy road that wound through the cemetery. It was a warm day; the snow slid off the pine tree boughs in clumps that spattered apart when they hit the ground. We drove to the back of the cemetery, stopped the car. We got out and walked to Judith's grave. Water shone in between the letters of her name on the small metal plate sticking up out from the ground. My father leaned over and put a bouquet of daisies on the ground next to the plate. The plastic was still wrapped around the flowers; the afternoon light flashed off the cellophane and snow. I listened to Walter's quiet wheezing as I stood there. "I wish I'd met her," Eli said. "What was she like?" My father cleared his throat. A small plane buzzed overhead with an unsure, archival sound. I looked up and saw the dark outline of a person in a stand of pine trees near the entrance to the cemetery. I shaded my eyes with a mittened hand; the person was waving. As he moved through the mud and snow toward us, I saw that it was Joseph. Leaving Eli and Walter at the grave, I walked over to meet him. As Joseph got closer I saw his sunburned face seemed to have sunk in slightly, like a failed cake. "Hey girlie!" He had a sleeping bag on his back, and gave me a one-armed hug. "Suuntsaa !" He stepped back and smiled proudly at me. "Suuntsaa yourself. D'Agostino? You're not Indian." I had looked at my high school yearbook: Joseph d'Agostino. Art club. JV basketball. |