Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda

Author:Ivy Pochoda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

* * *

Time to go home.

Lobos lives downtown in a loft on San Pedro. She got it cheap when the developer of her building was struggling to convince buyers that the Little Tokyo lofts were indeed in Little Tokyo and not smack in the middle of Skid Row.

She knows these buildings shouldn’t be converted into so-called luxury living because it will only make the desperation outside worse—each neighborhood refinement driving those who rely on Skid Row’s social services further afield, scattering them from the place where they are welcomed, reducing their permissible footprint and paving over their domain with a shiny ignorance.

Each slick new conversion means more residents with less tolerance for the undomiciled and more local landlords who will get greedy and jack their rents, forcing out the few businesses that cater to the homeless or offer them assistance.

She tells herself that being part of the community allows her to understand it better. But what she really understands is that the chaos is unceasing, the smell overwhelming, the press of bodies all consuming. She’s glad she’s on an upper floor—she has that sanctuary at least.

Lobos crosses through the heart of Skid Row, past the brutalist, windowless station where she works, past SROs and a few stalled constructions that promise low-income housing, past flophouse hotels, past tents, past the tentless, past the missions and those left outside who didn’t snag a bed for the night, past temporarily shuttered businesses, past permanently closed ones, past signs telling her WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS—TOGETHER.

Together—a word for the rest of the city, those sealed away, safer at home with their stockpiles and projects and childcare headaches.

Even at night, even in the unusually thick silence, the city still quivers with tension begging for release. Lobos feels eyes watching her from tents, from sleeping bags, behind tarps, and on top of flattened boxes.

She’s jumpy, startled by the usual noises—the scurrying, muttering, coughing—that soundtrack of nighttime streets.

She rattles her Tic Tacs, tips the canister into her mouth, distracting herself from the loose wires sparking her nerves. Lobos picks up her pace, ashamed of her fear. Another blight on her character, another weakness.

She drives a fist into her thigh. He did this, her husband. He unnerved her and unsettled her. When she finds him … Lobos doesn’t permit herself to complete the thought, afraid of everything she wouldn’t do.

And when she finds him …

One block to home. She crosses Fifth. A few shapes are passing in the dark, shadows under the shadows of streetlamps.

She passes the Downtown Women’s Center. Up ahead is her building.

Lobos pulls out her keys, then one glance over her shoulder— a final safety check.

There he is, across the street, under the sick, yellow flicker of another faltering streetlight. Stalking her.

San Pedro is wide, but well under the mandated one hundred yards that her husband must keep away from her.

“Hey,” she calls.

He doesn’t move.

She has planned for this. Two years of stored outrage. Two years of visualizing her retribution. And the moment is here.

“Hey.”

But she doesn’t cross the street.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.