She heard melodies

If she paid attention, Ayat understood what people said; otherwise, only the melody floated in her head. The streets of Rabat, her school, the market, the shops, were all, to her, like the mosque where the Quran was sung and not simply read. A multitude of melodies, haggled over prices, discussed politics, explained the sciences. If she was about to leave the house and her mother told her she needed something warmer, at first her mother only added a counterpoint to the melodies in her mind, but she knew her mother loved her so she listened a second time.