The Real Truth of the Freezing-Over at St. Mark's

From "A Vanishing Infinity: Stories"

After History Will Judge the Complicit by Anne Applebaum (The Atlantic, 2020)

For Sydney Anderson, with gratitude for her work with The Why Collective

---

Now under strict climate control, the choir room of St. Mark’s is available by appointment only. It features in every regional travel guide, and it is the site of at least one national pilgrimage. The hole in the wall remains untouched since the freezing-over, lauded by a plaque below that reads:

Advent at St. Mark’s

December 2020

Dedicated to the lives of service,

in Praise and Thanksgiving for

God’s Miracles, of:

Ms. Mary Bibbons

Dr. Douglas S. Clarke

Mr. Lyle Elisberry

Mr. Tyler Humphries

Mrs. Frederica Mayes

Mr. Kenneth Priester III

Mrs. Beverly Sutton-Mitchell

and Dr. Evelyn Ledbetter

Services at St. Mark’s continue as usual, only now each Sunday the clergy hold silence where the anthem used to be. The congregation reads its text in the bulletin, reflecting in the space with no sound.