After The Collapse
Aleya was four years old when her grandmother left this world. She doesn’t remember many details about that time, but she does remember one particular afternoon with her grandmother. She recalls the usual quiver in her grandmother’s voice being replaced by one of conviction and strength. At four she did not have the language to comprehend this, but as children do, she had a strong sense of that for which there are no words. Her grandmother took Aleya’s hands in hers and said, “Aleya, people stopped listening with their hearts a long time ago. Some of them didn’t believe in the wisdom of their own heart, and they saw it merely as another organ in the body, nothing more. This is why the world I lived through has been destroyed. It was so wonderful Aleya, and I’m sorry you will not get to experience it. We failed you. We failed you all. I’m so... The next word seemed trapped behind her lips, and the quiver returned. Tears began to pour from her grandmother’s eyes, as if a faucet had been turned on inside her. They rolled down her wrinkled cheeks and onto her lap where she held Aleya’s hands.
