It's been a long month since I was on. Sorry for that but I was hard at work correcting everything. Today I have the last two chapters to get to and they are most important.
To help pass the time until launch day, below is another short story for you to enjoy until then.
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
March 17, 2020-March 17, 2021
It has been one year since the world became silent. So many times throughout, people and their surroundings became silent again and again. During those times, all that was wanted was to go outside and shout just to hear the sound, any sound filling the air.
What am I talking about, you say. I will share with you what it was like to hear nothing but silence in my neighborhood, wherever I was at the time, and around the world.
It was March 17, 2020, when everything stopped in London, Ontario, Canada. The children stayed home and inside, the sounds of music had ended with all our bars and restaurants shut down. People's jobs ended, and everywhere the things we most consumed and did every day were gone.
For me, it was difficult living in Canada alone with all family members on the other side of the border that was now closed. In the beginning, I didn’t go outside my apartment door because everyone was cautioned to wear a mask to protect themselves from the virus, and they were not available.
I found the silence hard to deal with at times. The first few months, the groceries and prescriptions were delivered outside the door. No contact with others allowed meaning no pleasant conversations with whoever was bring the items. Live became mechanical after a while.
Before everything became silent, there were monthly meetings with a writing group, workshops at the library, and in-person classes at the university. Everything is now gone, everything now only virtual and many times without faces.
As humans are social beings, this was not normal, and the silence was difficult to remember to keep. Wanting to shout, “I am here, can you see me? Do you hear my voice?” Those thoughts remained inside and then got lost.
During the middle of this year, I was obligated to travel to a different city for close to four months and clean out a friend’s apartment. It was just me and the things. I would get up at four or five in the morning and begin to work. There were boxes being packed all day, trash being boxed for a helper who came every Saturday to remove it all to the recycle dumpsters outside.
Those times were challenging, and the silence was always there with me. No one to talk with or share what I was feeling. At times, I would shout to the walls or the thousands of books surrounding me out loud with no one to hear but empty air.
I now can understand what it must feel like to be a person who is deaf and only hears silence their entire life. It must be devastating to watch the people around them moving their lips as they speak and not knowing what they are saying.
Having a deaf Grandson who I assume that most times doesn’t understand why the people around him don’t learn to sign and talk in his language needing to be part of the conversation. I feel for him, and when around him, I do try my best to communicate in silence without words but actions.
I wonder if people who have been subjected to silence have learned anything. Do they feel the silence that most of us do? Do they even realize that for some of us, it is a difficult time not being able to talk to friends and family face to face?
Has there been any perception of what it is like for those who have lost loved ones totally in silence as they could not be with them during their time of need? Maybe everyone should go to a place and gather, still wearing a mask and social distancing, and just shout loudly and break the silence.
I don’t like the sound of silence. Once life finds more normality, my goal is to no longer be silent and shout out to anyone who will hear me that I need to listen to the sound of music, the sound of children laughing or crying. I just want to hear the sounds of life as we knew it.
Suppose we are all vigilant now and get our vaccines when it is our turn. In that case, the shouting in quiet places will end, and the silence will no longer be unless we need to find it to enjoy happily for a moment or two.
Just hearing the sound of someone bouncing a basketball in the courtyard near me is wonderful. Just hearing the children playing and screaming again below my window is wonderful. I hope the silence stays away because I truly don’t like it anymore.
On April 8, 2021, we went back into a stay-at-home emergency order. All border crossings were closed and monitored. Since then, the government has been increasing it when it gets near the end of our time by another two weeks.
As of now, it will go until June 2, 2021, and from a few days before then, we will see if it goes beyond. I’m tired of the sound of silence in my world and hope with many getting the COVID19 vaccine, it will finally end.
SEE YOU ALL SOON! STAY SAFE!
