The Girl Who Misses the Music

This is from a prompt in John Dufresne’s book Flash: “Made of the Myth” page 16.

I used the Tlingit tale “The Woman Who Married a Frog.”  Dufresne suggests we use a folktale, myth, or fairy tale and update it. It was to be kept under 700 words. This one is 649.  It's been rolling around in my head for a while, so I'm glad I finally got it down. Now I can move on to the other exercises in his book.

I highly recommend clicking on the link above and reading that story before reading mine. It will make more sense, I think.

The Girl Who Misses the Music

Sarah was a rich girl who had everything she needed. Her father was paying for her to attend the local university, where he sat on the board and paid her share of renting a house with her two friends from high school.

One day when she and her friends were walking through the outdoor café, they noticed a group of Hispanic young men. Her friend Penelope said she was surprised to see them there. Kayla said that they are probably on some kind of scholarships, maybe for hardship. Sarah didn’t say anything.

The next day, Sarah made a point of walking past the table alone. She had her eye on the one with the strong arms, the kind smile, the robust laugh. Sarah dropped her books “accidentally” as she walked by. Sure enough, Mr. Kind Smile got up and helped her with her books.

“Thanks,” Sarah said, looking straight into his eyes. She could see something there she had never seen before.

It was an encore. She knew there was more to come.

The next day, she walked past again. He caught her eye. She sat down. Classes were over for the day, and they spent the rest of the day together.

She didn’t go home that night. Instead, she went and stayed at Miguel’s house.  A house with several brothers, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, and an uncle, over and above Miguel’s mother and father. Miguel’s family welcomed her with no questions asked. Sarah stayed with him that night in the room above the garage where Miguel had his bedroom.

When Sarah’s father learned she was not staying in the house he was renting for her, he thought she had gone missing. But soon he discovered that she was, indeed, attending classes.

When he found out she was staying with a family of immigrants, he offered extra allowance money to get her to leave their home. But Sarah refused to leave. She loved the food, the laughter, the singing, the companionship of people that didn’t have much, and treasured each other so thoroughly. It wasn’t like anything she ever knew in her life.

After another week, Sarah’s father threatened to cut off her allowance altogether, and stop paying her tuition. Sarah was not fazed. She saw how hard Miguel’s family worked. She didn’t think that would be a bad thing for her. In fact, summer was coming and she looked forward to finding work. It would make her feel more a part of Miguel’s family.

The semester was about to end when Penelope came to Sarah with these words: Your father is threatening to call ICE on Miguel’s family. I heard it from my mother who is trying to protect you. You need to come back to the house. Otherwise, you are putting them all at risk.

Sarah knew enough about some of Miguel’s family members to know this could be a problem. She could not let this happen to them. She also knew she didn’t have the nerve to tell them face-to-face. Sarah wasn’t born with that kind of courage.

That night while Miguel was at work, she quietly slipped away. She changed her cell phone number. The next year she transferred to a university in another part of the state. She never saw Miguel again. In some ways she knew it was for the better. Her life was easier this way.

Or so it should be. Instead, she kept looking into the eyes of every young man she met, longing to find that music in their eyes that she had found in Miguel’s.  But the encore was only for the two of them. It would never be fulfilled. It was lost in the silence of time.