The Unstruck Sound

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The three friends walked down the middle of N. Rampart St. Devi and Hasneem were wearing high heels. Saj had on flip flops.

"Where have you been all day?" Hasneem asked.

"What were you doing with those sketchy old men?" Devi asked.

"They're not sketchy," Saj replied. "That's Mr. Williams. He's been my friend since I was little."

"Whatevs," Devi said. "You can't just be standing alone in the middle of Rampart St."

"I wasn't alone. I was with Mr. Williams. Obvs."

"We were worried about you. Duh," Hasneem said.

They caught up to the tail end of the parade as it was turning into the cemetery. The narrow entrance gate forced the crowd of people into one long line.

"Let's go in the back way," Devi said. "I don't want to miss the ceremony."

"There's a back way?" Saj asked.

"You know. The one that the kids use when they want to sneak in here." Devi led them along a crumbling brick wall.

"Don't go so fast. I'm wearing six-inch heels," Hasneem protested. To Saj she said, "She wants to find Omoni."

Devi smiled. "Him and his dad are going to be drumming at the grave. Hurry up!"

They came to the end of the high wall that enclosed the cemetery. In this back section, the wall had fallen down or been removed and replaced with a chain link fence.

"There's no entrance back here," Hasneem said.

Devi pulled back a section of the chain link that had come loose from the pole.

"Saj, can you hold it while me and Hasneem go through? Our moms'll kill us if we rip our good clothes."

Saj grabbed the fence. She had on a black sundress she'd bought at the dollar store. She wore her Bon Coeur sweatshirt over it.

The two girls squeezed through the fence.

"Who's going to hold it for me?" Saj asked as she tried to hold the wire and squeeze through the opening at the same time.

An insistent drumming rumbled toward them, and Devi started running toward the sound. There was a grassy patch with no tombstones, just marble benches dotted here and there. The men in white had taken it over and were spinning like tops. Near them was a group of men with bald heads, wearing orange outfits, jumping up and down and chanting. Some women in saris had gathered around them and were clapping their hands in time to the chants.

"Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare hare hare hare!"

The atmosphere reminded Saj of Mardi Gras. The brass band musicians were carrying their instruments and sauntering away from the gravesite. Many people were holding incense and the clumps of burning leaves that Ms. Birney had. Ms. Birney twirled in the midst of the men in white.

Hasneem grabbed her hand.

"I have to go find my family. My dad will start a big fuss if I don't get back to them."

They pushed through the crowd toward the tombstone. The robed monks who were kneeling and chanting, twirling toy-like metal things, surrounded the tomb. The African drummers were off to the side. In the middle of the circle, women dressed entirely in white were dancing and swaying to the drumming. There was a tall man dressed in an all-white dashiki who had a white rooster he held by its feet and passed over and around the bodies of the women dancers.