Madeline Atwood’s Reviews > Last Things > Status Update

“We went to the woods to pick out our Christmas tree.
My father didn't believe in Christmas, but still we celebrated it. It was like not believing in God but still you prayed. My mother said it was a shame to cut down a tree, so instead we chose one in the forest and tied a ribbon around it so we could find it again.
On Christmas morning, we got dressed in our warmest clothes and went to see our tree.”

“I had never been to church because my father had vowed to raise me a heathen. A heathen was a godless thing, my mother explained. In some parts of America, it was against the law to be one. On Sundays, I watched from the woods as the Christians drove by. The women had on dresses and the men wore dark suits. Sometimes I threw rocks at their cars and waited to see what God would do. Nothing much, it turned out.”

“Grooming was important to Mary because she believed her portrait would one day appear on a dollar bill. The summer before, she had sent away in the mail for a kit to start her own country. Marydom, it was going to be called. It wasn't ready yet because there was a lot of paperwork to do, she said.”

Edgar was quiet. He found a candle and lit it. He turned his back to me and started to read. The book he was reading was called Being and Nothingness.
The only question he'd answered all night long was which was better. (Nothingness.)