Even
as I walked down the path, watching children playing games and running around,
chasing each other, I heard no noise.
A
man was walking toward me with a dog’s leash tightly clutched in one hand. The
dog was lunging ravenously at a squirrel climbing a nearby tree. The man
struggled to contain the dog without being pulled away at the same time. But
the dog made no noise. And the man made no noise, and the children made no
noise.
A
small girl with her mother walked in front of me from behind before the small
child stumbled on a tree root and fell onto the pavement, face first. Her
mother ran to her while the girl screamed noiselessly, her mother coaxing her
with words I couldn’t hear, her hand fussing over her child, not knowing what
to do.
“Are
you alright?” I said as I walked past. But my words made no sound. And still,
the mother turned to me, panic in her eyes, and tried to say something back,
but I heard nothing. Then she was calling to someone, yelling something I
couldn’t hear.
But
immediately, other people flocked toward the woman, reaching forward and trying
to help the little girl. I backed away, surrounded by the silence that others
weren’t living with.
I
moved on, shoving my hands in my pockets and shuffling along and alone, with no
company but the silence.
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A/N: This is about a girl who is deaf. Thanks for reading and please
comment!
-N
