The American Scene [2] by Taylor Byas

"Before she is noticed, she is the dark aberration thrown against the country club background."

The American Scene [2]
by Taylor Byas

Scene One - Sewanee Golf Course & Inn, Post-Dawn

[A BLACK WOMAN sits on her balcony overlooking one of the course’s holes. She can be seen grabbing her upper calf and wincing. Below her, three WHITE MEN gather on the hole’s green while one prepares to putt.]

                                                             NARRATOR

Before she is noticed, she is the dark
aberration thrown against the country club
background. An amateur photographer, she has left her camera
inside on the bed even though the 9-hole course shakes
out like an inherited patchwork quilt. She is tuned to risk
like a violin. The ache in her calf has nowhere to be but
where it is, the small knot of it uncurling into a full cramp,
high up, nearly behind the knee. The intensity
of the sun threatens to agitate it further. On the green, money
with its different sound. No clink or paper-
shuffling, but the pop of a soft clap, the huffs of faulty-ignition
laughter. The men in different versions of the same
uniform and wide-legged stance. As she massages into
the muscle, she bites her lip to hide the hiss that nearly flits onto
the silent course. One of the men takes a slow swing. 
The sole checkered flag bodyrolls in the light breeze. His white
ball arches towards the hole like a branch burdened
with alien weight. And here we arrive,
where her gasp is a 7-iron slicing through air.
The men turn their heads and gawk while the wind helps
the forgotten ball along into the hole. It thuds, hollow,
unconverted to celebration. The men’s shadows slant away
from them like any smart, black thing should.

★ Read our interview with Taylor Byas ★