Natural Selections: Gloria Nagy
Natural Selections
She would always remember the night before he died, because of the eclipse. It was December. He set his alarm and went to sleep in his clothes to make the awakening less painful. He put on his heavy sheepskin jacket and walked to the Charles River and watched the moon disappear, leaving only a fine halo of platinum light in the sky. lt was very cold. He shivered and began to cry. He cried for his family and his lost childhood. He cried for his name, calling to himself softly as in prayer, “Adam”.
When he stopped, the top half of the moon was back, like a bloated egg sitting in an ebony cup. He breathed in deeply, wiping his swollen eyes with his cold white hand. He had always been alone, but he had never been this alone. He closed his eyes and saw his parents, his baby sister, his brother, standing in front of the mansion on Great River Road, smiling in white summer linens as if all on earth was safe and fine. He smelled beignets, chicory roasting and wet wartn air. He heard porch swings and mosquitoes. A sadness so deep it knotted his stomach.
