The Community

by N. Jamiyla Chisholm

all adults worked but only a few were free to leave without questions. If they weren’t doctors, lawyers, or nurses, anything that required them to go into the world, the women concentrated on childcare, cleaning, cooking, or working in the mailroom. Otherwise, it was to see a doctor, cash a welfare check, make welfare appointments. To get back inside, everyone had to show identification and a pass. Ummi’s two-sided identification card showed two black-and-white versions of her. One side presented her dressed all in black with her veil down and the other with her veil up, which is what she would show the guards who weren’t supposed to see the face of a woman to whom they weren’t married. Unless a woman had a powerful connection in the Community, most sat like sardines in a can waiting to be plucked out by someone for something.