Summary

The funeral took place two weeks after the body was buried. When the procession came across the property, the narrator was accidentally standing nearby. He was only outside because Lerice was redoing the living room floor. Irritated, he went outside to practice golf. From where he was standing, he could see the nearby graves and the approaching processional.

He did not know if he should keep playing, or wait "until the whole gathering was decently passed" (16). He watched the group, their expressions, and the slow movement of the donkey carrying the coffin cart. Then Petrus, his father, Albert, and another boy took the coffin off the cart and began walking it to the grave. He stopped watching, and was about to return to his golfing, when he heard the father's voice. Everyone stopped, confused. The old man's "corner of the coffin" sagged at...