36 | The Writer • April 2020
THIRD-PLACE WINNER
Black as Goth
BY KARA DONADT
The straw-haired girl, not a child though not yet
an adult, stood quietly next to her mother as the
crowd of mourners closed in on them. The air
was damp and cold, making her breath a steam
cloud as she exhaled. She stared at her shoes, her
face hidden by a curtain of hair, and let her gaze
wander along the grassy floor. Sodden feathers
clung to her shoes while others lay strewn across
the once-verdant ground.
A purple-robed priest floated past her so close
she could have snatched his long, flowing scarf
from around his neck. But she didn’t; instead, she
kept her hands stashed deep in her coat pockets,
the stolen eye gripped tightly in her right hand.
Amid the human forest, the girl thought
about Grandfather’s house. She visualized his
bedroom: the heavy drapes pulled shut as if to
keep the sunlight from revealing the room’s
secrets and the lumpy quilt with its evenly spaced
knots. Even now, she could still taste the stale
cigarette- and sweat-infused air heavy on her
tongue. Inside her pocket, nimble fingers turned
over the convex shell-shaped object. She pictured
the blue iris and covered it with her thumb,
pressing hard. Grandfather’s glass eye, stolen
from the jewelry box on his dresser the last time
he had taken her to his bedroom.
A distant caw from a derisive crow pricked her
ears. The black-winged creature had come for the
eye and, she hoped, for her as well.
Mother shifted her weight from one shoe to the
other, her nylon-covered calves flexing. The cor-
ner of her elbow nudged the girl from time to
time to remind her to stand still or straight, or to
keep alert – the girl was not sure which. Earlier at
home, the girl had wanted to wear her blue jeans
and sneakers instead of her Sunday shoes and the
dress Mother had bought specially for this occa-
sion. When the girl protested, Mother had thrown
the clothing at her and then left to wait for her
downstairs, slamming the door behind her.
During the church service, the girl had wanted
to go up with the others, the old men and women, Azuzl/Shutterstock