"Scilence Persued"

A Story by Elle

The title rings true to the story.

The distinct noise of ringing sounded throughout the halls, demanding students to force themselves into their constricting desks’. A table that almost completely encompassed the chair, except for the tiny opened space to allow the person in and out, that’s what they called “desks”. As the students filled each and every one of these “desks”, they realized with certainty that this was going to be a very dull class. Preconceived ideas of the teacher, based off appearance, and of interest, based off the subject, were the objects of this belief. Two people in particular sat, like the rest of the students, but with a spotlight for you reader. These two people sat in the corner, the back right corner, furthest from the teacher, but with little more acquaintance than that of the new surroundings. They knew nothing of each other, nor cared to know any more than that.

Days passed and as the year progressed new assumptions were made, one of the back right attendees blended, they shared similar attributes as the next pupil in the aisle ahead, and the other may or may not have. One could never tell because they rarely spoke, and very rarely made any move for interaction. And this intrigued the others, but the one sitting beside the silent one in the far right corner, of the assumed drab teacher and room, was the only one to dare to cox the Silence. It started first with a whisper, “Do you have a piece of paper?’ so simple was the question but so complicated was the intent.

It continued like this for a couple days, until rallied by a friend, the questioning pupil spoke loudly. With appeared confidence, the questioner turned there motifs true “Speak! Do you speak?”, and with that the Silence was broken. The glass that in cased this Silence shattered to fragments, as if hit by these fragments, the quiet one looked at the questioner. “The question is not if I speak, but if I am heard.” responded the soft quiet one in a gentle hush. The inquirer found little satisfaction, but once again asked for a piece of paper, this time finding at the bottom right hand corner the word “Hi”. Surprised the interrogator turned to face the Quiet and smiled, which was then returned with similar beauty. “Hi” whispered the inquisitive one; this was returned with equal volume, eagerness, and gentleness. “I prefer written words, they don’t get taken for granted as often”. What appeared to be a simple “Hi” was much more than that, it was the first gesture to pursue another, clearly stating that the voice wanted to be heard, and that the voice with yearned response would be heard as well. And so the meaningful greetings continued, though no further was pursued.

When partner work came along the pre-planed partnerships were made, friend paired with friend, and those left were neither cared for nor surprised. Except for the Quiet one, whose voice was little heard, if it all, and only in whispers. If not listened to carefully, the low hush of their voice could be mistaken as wind or nothing at all. But that was the intriguing part, it was heard just as loudly as it was intended to be. Shocked, the person behind the hush was offered partnership by the intrigued pupil that sat in the bottom right hand corner. The partnership, was as always quiet, it was neither filled with chatter nor the loud uncomfortable scream of utter silence. Work was progressive, and they finished before the others surrounding them, and so the paper bridged the two. The inquisitive one, of course, started.

The letter’s “Hi” were scrawled neatly on an empty sheet of paper, the soft whisper moved forward to meet the paper with the delicate messiness of the response.

“I love conversations on paper, there’s something so dramatic about it.”

The two grinned at each other

“Agreed, but conversations projected are nice as well. Will I ever hear your voice?”

The thoughtful pause was heard only from the two bridged by the lonely paper.

“Think of this paper as a wall, as the conversation moves further down the page, so will the wall’s top. Until there is nothing between, and then voices may be heard”

The words were read slowly and delicately, and with similar delicacy was the thought provoked.

“What if I were to do this?”

A neat careful line was drawn to the end of the page, wavering ever so slightly as it reached the bottom.

Both smiled at each other, genuine and growing.

A response was made at the middle of the page now, as close to the top as possible, and with smaller letters then before.

“You could, but then you would have broken the wall.

To reach the bottom you must play fair and square.”

And with that, squares of dialogue appeared finishing just as the infamous ring fell throughout the halls. The curious pursuer grabbed the now boxed paper smiling and whispered “Challenge accepted.”