Sun over Birmingham Closed

Just after midday, the sun’s scorching gaze bathes the castle courtyard. Dust particles turn to golden pollen, stirred from their decade old rest by the Siberian wind. Cracks creep along the discolored castle walls, worn over by age and unspoken violence. Age. There is wisdom in that which has stood the test of time. Prestige and longevity cradled hand in hand; as ma’ said to always respect one’s elders, so must one also respect this place. Though unlike his aging, dementia-ridden grandmother, the castle’s state seems to have taken a turn for the better. It’s crevices buzz with barely perceptible movement, and sometimes birds fly in and out of the wall. Edible moss wraps the cold stone, creating a warm, nutrient rich environment for beetles and other small critters. Under the rubble, there lies a whole colony of teeming life. On lower elevation, where the groundskeeper’s tools could reach, the hedges are cut into neat, geometric cuboids, and the flowers pruned into allocated spaces, such that no one color prevails over the others.

In his mind, the sun scorches over a dirty street in Birmingham. Brown water gathers in a deep puddle by the road where drainage has failed. The soft cry of children chasing one another through the street with glee echos alongside the din of a skirmish breaking out just a block away. On a lumpy field just West of the neighborhood school, ten players verse eleven. Sprinting in the heat, their bodies glow with a fine film of sweat, their cries of rage and victory singing an afternoon chorus. The trees here are old and skinny - one time a car accident uprooted three of them in succession, snapping a fourth’s trunk in half. They are like her, his ma. And Aunt Josie. And the revered sister from Sunday Mass. He wonders how they are, if they’re doing okay without him. How his brothers were convinced that a boy whose family had no money could afford to send him overseas to study. If they worried for him, thought his childness had been sold to a foreign family.

His mind thinks of home, and why he has to be where he is. If it is all a fairytale, and if his Prince Shrek is coming to take him away. As his body travels back to its dorm with the sun at its back, he closes his eyes and pretends to hear a loud bang in the distance.