#207 The Wheat from the Tares- Jabari Asim

#207 The Wheat from the Tares- Jabari Asim

Rose is Pristine’s next door neighbor. She has had a rough winter, sick and friendless. Her husband is abusive, physically and verbally and doesn’t like her going outside the house for any reason. The whole neighborhood knows about the situation, but what does one do? Her meekness aside, her one defining trait is her singing voice.

“Roses voice was an extraordinary thing, an effortless blend of longing, power, and love.”

“When the feeling overtook Rose, she’s shuck her customary shyness, stand an grab the porch railings. Her voice would pour out over the garage roofs, garbage cans, and backyards of Sullivan Avenue. Pristine would later swear that the entire neighborhood grew quiet to give Rose center stage. Gone was the sound of trucks and buses belching exhaust…Into thin air went the leonine roars of the Dobermans standing guard behind Hudson’s Package Liquor. Everything that had made the world teeming with noise just moments before vanished.”

“She sang only when her husband wasn’t home. The silence that followed his arrival was not a kind that encouraged peaceful contemplation; it was troubling and electric, like calm before a storm.”

There are few secrets in communities that live so close, pretenses maybe, but there is nowhere to hide, even if you sit inside and close the blinds. People will see, and people will talk. Friends are good to have if you are just willing to come outside.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total=31