Transcript:
You’re in… The Listening Room, a podcast series by The FLARE Substack. I’m Chevanne, the voice behind both.
This next piece was difficult to write. I kept turning it over in my head, avoiding it, and revising it. That’s mostly because it’s a frightening true story, one about you and me and what could happen to you or to me. Only one small thing could make a big difference. Thanks for joining me to hear this special presentation entitled: A Pound of Flesh.
[instrumental opening]
Good evening and welcome to a KMC News, I’m Jon Velez. Tonight we speak with a woman whose story is at the center of a political firestorm.
Shayla Simmons reports.
[birds chirping and traffic noise]
In the commuter town of Andover, New Jersey, there are neatly manicured shrubs and quiet streets. The local farmer’s market doubles as a social hub on Sundays, but so does the art museum and downtown coffee shops. It’s a place where everyone knows everyone.
Teresa Silber has lived here for 10 years and is a mother to Cara, 9 and Sam, 7. She is a social worker by day and a prolific short story writer by night, nearly done with her first full length novel three years in development. It’s a sci fi thriller with the type of heroes she thinks her children need and the type of conflict she’s seen in her profession.
“I’ve always been a writer. But when I started publishing these short stories online, there weren’t a lot of opportunities to break into the business, so I tried something else.”
“What’s your favorite time to write?”
“Nights! I have no choice!”
Teresa lives in a building near downtown with a doorman, 24-hour gym on site, and a meeting space, luxuries for this area.
“It’s nice! We definitely have what we need here.”
Teresa and her husband Philip moved here from a nearby county after visiting and falling in love with Andover. Before long, she was pregnant. Two years after Cara, Sam was born. They would take the children on hayrides in the fall, sledding in the winter. Summer took the Silbers to their favorite Jersey shore towns.
“We were very happy.”
“Take us back to that night.”
[Teresa sighs]
Teresa had gone to put reusable grocery bags and glass jars in the car for shopping at the farmer’s market the next day. Nothing would prepare her for what happened next.
[elevator bell dings]
“When I came up the elevator, I saw my neighbor in the doorway with her arm extended like this, pointed in. Then there was this bang [gunshot] and I was caught off guard by how loud it was. And I admit I was a little confused, like ‘What the hell is that?’. Then she turned and saw me. We kind of locked eyes for a second. Umm, then she took off down the hall toward her apartment and I started running to see who she shot. My mind was racing in those few moments.”
Her husband, Philip, had been shot through his upper chest, near his clavicle bone. The bullet nicked a major artery that began to bleed out quickly. Philip was only conscious for another minute.
[sniffling]
“He told me ‘I love you. And I love what we’ve made together.’ He did get to say anything more than that. We all just held hands.”
Their children, 8 and 6 at the time, had been feet away when their father was shot.
“They heard everything. They saw everything. I just… that’s the part that really really hurts.”
The conflict had started only a short time before the murder, when the neighbor, Taye Reynolds, knocked on the Silber Family’s door complaining of noise. When she was dismissed by Philip, it quickly escalated.
“She started having her dog pee on our door and would ring the doorbell late at night. Petty, juvenile things.”
Days later, Philip and Taye bumped into each other in the lobby and got into a heated argument. Philip issued a complaint with the rental office.
“She was vile. Just cursing up a storm, saying we were keeping her up, that her dog was getting agitated. I’m like, ‘Lady, my kids are in bed by 8. There’s no way they’re keeping you up.’ She wasn’t convinced. My husband was shot that night.”
Taye Reynolds was quickly arrested and saddled with a litany of charges, including manslaughter and child endangerment. She’ll likely spend the rest of her life in jail.
“I don’t want to take a life for a life. I want my husband back. My children need their father.”
All this has put Teresa at the center of a heated countrywide debate about guns. And about the senseless violence that seems to follow.
“No, I’m not going to fight for more gun control.”
“Why?”
“Why would I? You don’t really care about me or my children, however talented and beautiful there are. Their father was a victim of gun violence and bled out in front of them and nothing with change. Except gun sales.”
“How so?”
“Someone watching this won’t want to be the victim, right? So they’ll buy a gun. [Teresa scoffs] My husband’s death netted a sale and that’s all that matters. He is a sacrifice to the altar of the NRA. And this is no Lady MacBeth complex where they imagine the blood is on their hands, there is blood on their hands. But they will wash it off every night and light a candle for the dead for the benefit of optics to make us think they’re sorry. They’re not fucking [bleep] sorry.”
“If you could say anything directly to the NRA, what would it be?”
“There is nothing I can say that hasn’t been said. There is no child’s death, no voice of anguish that’s moved them. I’d be wasting time I could be spending comforting my children, telling them how much their father loved them and believed in them. I could use my words to tell a new story where my husband is the hero. I’m doing that now.”
“Some would say he is a hero. He protected his children.”
“He’s not. He’s just another pound of flesh for the price of freedom.”
In the wake of Philip’s death, Teresa tried to pick up the pieces of her now shattered life, but something still troubled her. Taye insisted the Silber children kept her up at night. So Teresa started staying up at night too and listening. Then she heard it.
“The neighbor abutting her apartment had a set of twins who’d just learned to climb and run. Their room shared a wall with Taye’s office and the kids were up some nights playing. That’s probably what she heard. But when Philip told her off, it ended up just being revenge. She settled the argument and destroyed our lives with a bullet.”
The debate continues on whether to enact more stringent gun control law or preserve second amendment rights. As of this broadcast, Senate Bill AAA 20, or the Arms Accountability Act, has stalled in the House of Representatives.
We’ll be right back.
[upbeat instrumental plays]
This episode was written and directed by me, Chevanne. Sound effects from freesound.org. Audio assistance and support by Christopher Scordinsky. Original musical compositions by me.
I’ll introduce the next reading on a future episode. Hope to see you there.
What’s next?
Behind the scenes
Subscriber post on letting go
A serial reading of a short story perhaps?
Special Presentation