#787 The Prayers of the Sycophant- Fatima Shaik
Sharon has a hard time with the changes around her. The neighborhood has changed and her husband, a friendly neighborly man, has fallen in with the bad elements of the changing neighborhood. She thinks he is using drugs again, but she is afraid to ask.
“She should have examined whether his eyes were more than tired, and asked if someone else’s cigarette smoke was in his hair. She should have asked. Or she should have known and done something…Instead, she gardened.”
Her fig tree is the symbol to her of everything that’s wrong. It grows lopsided and most of the fruit falls into the next yard over. Instead of going over there and gathering them up, or doing something else proactive, she laments the injustice. New people now occupy that house, and they never stay that long, she has no desire to learn their names. She is more upset at the dying figs.
“What a waste…She had meant the figs, the children, and the dysfunctional families.”
When her husband dies of an overdose, her agoraphobia reaches new levels. Without help it is unlikely she will be able to live a normal life. She desperately needs help.
“And she stayed on her knees and begged as the sun fell and the figs fell and the juice seeped from the rotting fruit like the very nature of injustice.”
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