Make Good Choices
Drains gurgle. Bathtubs and sinks make a distinctive sound. When a plug is pulled, and the pipes are clear, drains gurgle. Emptiness makes a noise. Ears ring after a party. A hall, after the reception, echoes. A church, after a wedding, sounds like traffic or birds or a furnace or an air conditioner. Leaving is a wordless language. Parents speak a wordless language on a first child's first day of school. Ann understood leaving. Girlhood behind her, and high school completed, meant Ann faced decisions. Drained was the joy of graduate school admission. Empty pages awaited her dissertation. "How's that big paper coming?" Ann's mother asked. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, Ann left her family for South African study. Apartheid's plug was already pulled but a tub of Truth and Reconciliation gurgled: Many unnamed and unknown South Africans were the victims of gross violations of human rights during the Commission...