The Prisoner

Lines and brick, what does it mean? She sees them when she closes her eyes at lights-out. She palpates her temples, feeling deep grooves from electrodes’ repeat scarring. Her jaws clench and she shudders in sympathetic memory of cold metal tables and burly, hairy arms holding her down. Her fetal curl tightens.

She doesn’t cry anymore. All of her tears have released themselves. She knows she is waiting.

One midnight, a nearby explosion shakes her cage. Gunfire, smoke, screams fill her senses.

“We’ve come for you, Rabbi,” says a deep voice.

She turns to see a familiar face; remembers.

[99 words]

I tried to learn if women can be rabbis in the Jewish faith and did not find a definitive answer. In the world of fiction they can.

Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the host of Friday Fictioneers.