Currant

Currant stands out in Ava Jane Halloway’s memories not for noise, but for its absence: after living in places with many different soundscapes, she found Currant’s quiet the hardest to grow accustomed to—and later found herself missing it.

Setting and Sound

Ava’s comparison gives Currant a distinctive place among the settings she has known. She had lived in many places, including the South, where cicadas filled the nights, and a big city, where cars honked. Those sounds differed, but the lack of sound in Currant proved harder for her to get used to than either kind of noise.

Ava’s Changing Response

Ava’s relationship to Currant’s quiet changes with distance: what had been difficult to adapt to becomes something she misses. The contrast makes the location memorable through an absence rather than a landmark or a described view, and shows how a once-disruptive silence can come to feel like something lost.