Along came Reid

23. Songbird

Beneath Jamie's bare toes, the fertile farm soil was soft and cool, a stark contrast to the hot drying sun that beat mercilessly upon her back. Tending her rooftop garden and tending the fields on the reserve were two vastly different experiences.

A dull ache pinched the nerves within her fingers with every weed she pulled from the crops of growing squash. Around her, many of the women performed similar tasks, weeding and watering the fields, talking little and working much.

However, for all of the ache the manual labor caused, Jamie infinitely preferred farmwork than survival against the deaders. In fact, she could hardly help the grin that lifted her cheeks or the gentle hum that sounded in her chest.

"You've got a beautiful voice." Marjorie commented from the row beside her, as she tucked a weed into the cloth sack at her back.

"I'm actually a music major, or I was." Jamie answered, wiping her brow beneath her straw sun hat, pausing to stand tall and stretch languidly. Her shoulders and spine gave satisfying 'pops' as she worked the soreness from them. "It's been awhile since I could sing. Out there silence was survival."

Marjorie mirrored Jamie's bright grin. "Well if that's the case, you should sing more often around here."

A laugh tickled Jamie's chest at the freedom of releasing her voice once more. During the first weeks in the height of the collapse, a group of her classmates perished when they decided to sing to relieve the stresses of the devolving world. From their deaths, Jamie learned to keep quiet, locking her gift within her throat lest she lose the very thing that held it.

Returning to her chore, Jamie sang softly. Her voice cracked at first, feeling like the dry earth beneath her feet. It wasn't until her fifth song did her voice become a shadow of what it once was. Her professors would've critiqued her mercilessly for her poor technique, but right now that didn't matter.

Jamie knew why a caged bird sang.

Losing herself in the music, Jamie sang her heart out and like a dam under pressure, the flood of the melody swept her away into a river of emotion that left her weeping on her knees. She could feel a crowd surrounding her, but none stepped forward as she belted a soulful 'His Eye is on the Sparrow'. In that moment, Jamie sang because she was happy and she sang because she was free.

When her voice quieted, she found others surrounding her, their eyes shimmering in the light of the shining sun above. Wiping her own cheeks Jamie stood, realizing she'd interrupted their work. "I-I'm sorry." she offered awkwardly to the watching crowd, unsure of how to explain her actions. "I-I just got caught up with the song, started thinking about everything and I...I just–"

"Don't be sorry." spoke an older woman who looked to be at the height of her fifties. The woman stepped forward and took Jamie's hands into her own dry wrinkled ones. "You sang from the heart. No one's going to fault you for that." she smiled warmly patting her hand. "You're new here aren't you?"

A mixture of a laugh and a cry bubbled from Jamie's lips as she nodded. Looking at the woman was like looking a ghost of her mother. "My first day working on the farm and I turn into a wreck." Jamie noted sardonically, glancing heavenwards with a heavy sigh.

"What's going on here?" demanded a man on horseback on the dirt path neighboring the fields. A tattered straw hat rest atop his brow, casting dark shadows across his eyes. Jamie didn't miss the firearm nestled at the rear of his saddle. Since the deaders were beyond the concrete barricades surrounding them, why did he need a gun?

"Just heat stroke is all. She's new to the farm." answered the older woman beside her. "Come dear, let's get you into the shade."

The man on the horse surveyed the disbanding group with a sneer wrinkling the bridge of his nose. "Get back to work then." he ordered before turning his back to the group to trot further up the fields to observe the other field hands and their work.