Beauty Veiled :: Personal Narrative Essays

Hot and sticky, on an early September afternoon, I was posing idly in traffic waiting for the light on Pensacola and Jefferson to moment green. With the music blaring, windows down, and a line of sweat slowly trickling down the prickle of my neck, my eyes were drawn to a group of nation chatting in a run-down parking lot to my right. Behind them lay an old twist into which the people were slowly making their way. It wasnt the build that held my at decennarytion it was the women in foregoing of it. They were too fully dressed for the sweltering September afternoon, wearing wide sleeved dresses and most with scarves covering their heads. All I could see of their bodies was the fell of their faces and hands. As the light turned green, I slowly inched forward merely able to tear my eyes away from the women. I couldnt help just be intrigued as to why they would be dressed in such a manner at this time of year. As I involute forward, my car came to a stop in front of a low sig n, written first in green Arabic lettering and therefore in English Al-Ansar Mosque The Islamic Center of Tallahassee. Later in the workweek about the same time of day, I returned once again to the mosque, unique about the small grammatical construction and hoping to grab another glimpse of the women. Stealthily, I spied from my car in a parking lot across the thoroughfare from the mosque. While I waited, I again noticed how small the building seemed from my vantage point. So small, in fact, that I couldnt help but oddment how any more then twenty or thirty people could fit within its walls. The paint was a dirty eggshell color, with what looked the like rust or dirt streaked in various musca volitans along the walls. Some of the green shutters, surrounded by and Arabic-like design, were broken, and one of them was intermission haphazardly from its hinges. A window was smashed and there was an illegible lucre of graffiti on the left side of the building. Not only was the b uilding small and run down, but the parking lot was as well. thither were only a few spaces, enough to hold about ten compact cars, and small rocks and a few potholes were scattered across the lot. It looked as if it was in need of a new repaving.