Summary

In "Cross Off and Move On," the narrator reads her cousin Morrie's obituary in the newspaper. She calls her ex, Jake, and tells him. He minimizes her feelings about Morrie's death, arguing that they were never close. He asks if she wants him to come over. Though she says she is fine, Morrie's death cues a series of memories about her childhood.

Though she did not know Morrie well, the narrator was always close with her aunts, Adela, Bernice, and Charna. Her mother, however, never thought highly of them, believing them unsuccessful and unproductive. Despite her mother's negative opinions of the aunts, she would frequently leave the narrator at their house.

Though the narrator is unsettled by their house as a child, she is fascinated by Adela, Bernice, and Charna. Their home is filled with exotic trinkets and when they...