The Last Girl

by Nick Twist

I wish I could remember the names of the girls from my childhood, but I seem to have blocked this part of my memory into a grave in my skull. I stop the car. We’ve arrived. In the cemetery we pay our respects to aunt Ashlyn Ward. I’ve buried her ashes inside an urn that I had placed in a coffin. Ashlyn deserves to be remembered, not just as my pen name author, but as a human being. It’s also nice to see June pray on her knees with laced hands. She seems so serious about it. I wait as she tells Aunt Ashlyn about her flying plans and tattoos. June claims she can hear Ashlyn talk back to her. I never comment or ask about the things Ashlyn tells her. I’d like to think it’s true, not that my daughter has an imaginary friend who is her aunt. Besides, if I know what Ashlyn tells June, I think I will break down in tears.

used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Copyright © 2017 by Akmal Eldin Farouk Ali Shebl. All rights reserved. No part of this book