The girl in the headscarf moved into the old house on the corner of the street around the beginning of last spring. I remember the first tulips had just emerged from beneath the year's final crust of dying frost when the neighbors began to talk. The house on the corner had stood empty for a while prior, so the girl likely would have been noticed regardless, but I know now that the headscarf attracted an attention all of its own.
In the early days, the neighbors talked a lot about where the girl in the headscarf had come from and how she had gotten here. Their stories differed, but the theme was the same. They said that she was one of those refugees from this or that country. She was here on the taxpayer's dollar, they said. She was being given a free ticket to come live in the country our forefathers had fought to build and protect. She had no place here.
I wasn't sure which parts of those tales were truth and which were fiction. I just listened and nodded when the neighbors would stop me and tell me these things. A lot of them took their information from the News, they told me. I guess I always thought it pretty strange how one source could produce so many different versions of a single story.
The girl in the headscarf seemed to work pretty hard on that house. Like I said, it had lain vacant for a while, and the place had a mildewy look about it. The garden was unkempt and overgrown. I think most would have agreed it had become something of an eyesore. She changed all that, though.
She worked on that place all day long for weeks on end. The house took on a radiance, and the garden was trimmed and pruned back meticulously. The neighbors weren't impressed. A few said their houses might look the same if they had free money and no job to worry them. I didn't argue but honestly I found the fruits of her labor were something of a pleasure to regard. Also, I was pretty sure at least one or two of those neighbors were unemployed themselves.
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Thanks so much for reading! G.H.
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ESTÁS LEYENDO
The Girl in the Headscarf
Historia Corta**Previously published in Mobius** A piece of dark fiction that reflects the realities of our modern age, yet remains timeless. A passive narrator from Anytown observes the comings and goings of an apparent refugee throughout a calendar year and de...
