Voices

                                               She heard voices now.  They talked about her.  They said

"Who did she think she was, trying to write at her age.  Why didn't  she go to lunch with friends, or take up bridge, or learn to knit?"

               

                                               She tried to keep the words out of her brain, but they kept coming through like lyrics from "Sweeney Todd" and wouldn't stop.  First one, then two, now three and four, they poured into her head.

                                                They said she may be smart, but she had made bad choices: the wrong school, the wrong job, the wrong husband, the wrong life.

                                                 She may have loved unwisely then, but she had them, her diamonds, one boy, one girl, her childen, "Her only gems," they said.