Jazz, and What She Decided to Do.

         Jazz was young and bored with the dull life of rural town. Her family had lived in that town for generations. Throughout the years, nothing had changed. People still wed their high school sweethearts, men still rode about the dirt roads on their tractors, and women still stayed home with the children.

         After a book club meeting, Jazz walked home with the intention of explaining her dreams of leaving to her mother. She knew her ideas wouldn't be accepted, but she couldn't live much longer there, with no action besides drunken brawls and no noise besides the maddening chirping of crickets, the croaking of frogs.

         She was nervous, much as she hated to admit it. Jazz was terrified of hurting her mother. She drew a stabilizing breath and walked into the farmhouse. Her mother, a 40 year old woman with graying hair and a floral-print dress, was sitting at the table with a cup of tea, waiting for her.

         "Honey!" she smiled. "I was just waiting for you." Jazz felt uneasy. She knew just how sweet and guilt inducing her mother could be.

         "I need to talk to you." She made her voice as stern as possible. "I'm leaving town tonight. Forever."

         Her mother's face fell. "I've expected this…What are you planning on doing?" Guilt tingled through Jazz's body at her mother's hurt concern.

         "I'm going to become a knife juggler."

         "But-" A mixture of generally negative and confused was present. 

         "Don't try to stop me." To demonstrate her talent, she took three kitchen knives and juggled them, without a single cut.

         "But you can't go!"

         Jazz was met with a very painful moment. She put the knives in her purse, bid her mother farewell with a kiss, and walked out the moth covered door, knowing she wouldn't come back.



WORD COUNT: 300