"Finding Apathy", an essay assignment on a personal experience, using much sensory description.

It was in early February of 1993 when my mother's brother was killed in a high-speed car accident, leaving behind his two young children and pregnant wife. The magnitude of the tragedy was terrible, and much of the family expressed a great deal of anger as well as distress. I was a child of eight at the time, and was pulled out of school to go to the funeral in North Carolina with my family. The …

…to whir into life. It slowly extended the casket over the grave and lowered it with a steady metallic clicking sound. As I watched the polished box sink from sight, I recalled my uncle's unfamiliar face, and once again felt that strange indifference, as if this weren't my uncle's funeral, but a stranger's. Feeling peculiarly unmoved, I turned my attention to the sun and the softening ground, and began to notice how hungry I was.