#261 Doo Wop- Jabari Asim

#261 Doo Wop- Jabari Asim

Ray Mortimer is a violent, crooked cop. “Crossing Sarah street, Mortimer loses himself in a fog of memories. So many ass-kickings, all in the name of peace.”

Charlotte is “A Petite southern lady with a brain for science will of steel.”

And Guts is a hard-hitting killer.

Tonight their three paths will cross. Their fates will converge, and somebody will die. Is it random, is it justice, is it destiny?

“It’s all about choices…tonight I stopped. Another day I might have kept on going. Who’s to say how it all comes out in the end? Damned if you doo-wop, damned if you don’t.”

Notable Passage: “Danger always has a scent, though most of us miss it.”

Rating: 7-7-7-7 Total= 28

#242 The Rug- Meg Mullins

#242 The Rug- Meg Mullins

Ushman Khan is a rug merchant selling his high-end floor coverings to New York’s elite, some of which, like Mrs. Roberts, are particular and demanding. He is here to build his business so his wife will come to America from Tabriz, but she is reluctant. This is his dream not hers, and she resents him leaving her to care for his crippled mother.

This and the many miscarriages she has suffered causes their marriage to strain: “He did not come to America to lose his wife.”

One day, while he is appraising an antique expensive rug, the man who has left it in his shop, dies. He knows that, if he wants it, the rug could now be his for free, and the sale of this rug could make him a fortune. But money won't buy him the happiness he wants, he is surrounded by loveless greed, vanity, death, and failure.

Notable Passage: “Except for your threshold, there is no refuge in this world for me; except for this door, there is no shelter for my head. When the enemy’s sword is drawn, I throw down my shield in flight because I have no weapon except weeping and sighing.”

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33