Silence
Benedict Christmas
A great day at the beach.
The sun shining through the empty blue sky.
Strawberry ice creams melting gradually on the cement floor.
Silence was all absent.
Mark and Kate lay together on the warm sand.
Sun reflecting off their bare backs.
Gulls squawking and swooping down to them.
Slurping up their melted ice cream.
Joined by the heavy cacophony of other people.
The sand darkened,
Mark’s queries joined their puzzled looks.
“It’s the clouds Mark.”
Oh, yeah. The clouds.
The clouds from the empty sky.
Their mound of ice cream shone heavy rays onto the couple, their backs rapidly turning scarlet. “Ow, ow!”
“So hot!”
As it got darker and blacker.
As the sun died, melted and vanquished.
As the ice cream shone.
As the noise muffled.
The silence was so absolute.
It was like you could reach out and touch it.
The silence of no people.
The silence of no waves.
The silence of no seagulls.
Silence.
The silence was interrupted suddenly – “And then there were 2.”
“Finally.”
A great day at the beach.
The sun vanquished like flames.
Dark black sky.
Strawberry ice creams shining, melting on the cement floor. The silence was now completely absolute.
No noise
No people
Just…
Silence.