Spend an evening with me on the rooftop of a guest house in the small town of Esperanza, on the north shore of the island of Vieques.
There are birds and crickets. Frogs and dogs. Bark left. Bark center. Bark right. Insects in surround sound. Car enters right, exits left. Couple fights in English in car parked on the street, angry words through open windows. Man walks by. Crumbling sounds of the roadway underneath a kid on a tricycle. Far away a plane or a boat, a distant rumble. And the chirps go on. In silence, there is noise.
Salsa music from an open window. No, it approaches–coming not from a home but from a car. Doppler effect salsa fades away. Moped in distance gets nearer. Like a speedboat stirring up waves, the moped stirs up barking dogs. And like the silent sea left behind, the dogs quiet. But the dog to the left still hasn’t shut the hell up.
Rooftop view, Esperanza, Vieques with the sea in the distance