Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral

Coney Island, 1977

9 Coney Island, 1977 Every time the Octopus lowers its metal arm, my mother yells at the man with the lever, I want to get off! We have come back East to visit Andrea from the wedding with the sheath of blond hair and the row of silk roses under her breasts. It’s the summer after my father’s death. There’s salt in the air. I want to get down. We saw a turbaned fortune-teller in a glass box. I think he’s broken. No one is putting quarters in the slot. Later my mom will show me the saltwater taffy turning on its rack. She will dip her still-young legs in the Atlantic. This is her old ocean. After we leave, Astroland will close and people will come back to stare at the wooden roller coaster and the fortune-teller. 10 Finally, the Octopus’s arms grow heavy and he slows down like he’s a real octopus, miles out and down in the water, home now on the bottom. He drops his arms like seaweed, elegant and boneless. ...