Requiem for Locusts

"I am scattered into a million pieces. Little pieces of sand or glass. Sharp-edged knives or swords, like the ones daddy plays with. They won’t let me but when I close my hands I cut myself anyway. Sharp-edged words and eyes, I try to hide from them but cannot."

These are the words of Marzita Zaferatos, a mentally-ill young woman who wanders into the lives of her neighbors on Locust Street, whether they want her to or not. On the street live a frail spinster, a career-driven couple and their toddler, a neurologist with a constricting shyness of women, a teenager who wishes her life could be as interesting as her daydreams, and Marzita’s father, a circus juggler. These residents are scarcely aware of each other’s existence, guarding their private lives behind doors and fences. But Marzita doesn’t understand that only superficial contact is customary in the close confines of a city. Sometimes unwillingly, her neighbors are caught up in her delusional, fairytale vision of life with princes and princesses, evil dukes, malevolent knives, circus stars and music, as her world spins out of control and the boundary between insanity and reality unravels.

This is the story of how people react when confronted by someone whose life is more out of control than their own. It is a story of love, misunderstanding, suspense and heartbreak. It is one that is familiar to us, as we wonder about our neighbors, experience the painfulness of self-doubt, or witness the confusion and fright of mental illness. It is the story of all who are forced to confront the chaos in their own lives.