The Sound Silence Makes

The Sound of Silent

A quick 750 word effort just for fun.

I entered my home after a long, hard day on the job and I immediately noticed something, the silence. The house was uncommonly silent, eerily silent as to be even foreboding. I rarely felt a sense of panic, like a harbinger of something bad to come but, for some reason, that's what I now felt as I walked within my own home. My girls, 10 and 12 were forever chattering and going on, even when they were doing their homework sounds emanated from wherever they happened to be in the house. Another thing I noticed is that the kitchen as well lacked any tangible signs of life. Normally Emily would be inside preparing dinner yet, I smelled nothing. I walked into the kitchen and found it empty. There was nothing on the stove or in the oven. I looked for a note on the memo board but it was clear since it was last erased.

Strange, I thought, if the girls had an event, it was usually noted on the calendar and if it was scheduled to run over after I arrived home it was usually starred on the calendar and Em always left me a note. The only thing listed on this date on the calendar was my bowling match a 7pm. Of course, there was no star for this. The mystery deepened. I got my phone out of my lunch pail. Since I work construction, much of the time high in the air, I place my phone in my lunch pail so I don't risk it falling several stories to the ground only to find it shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. I checked my texts, nothing there except a reminder from Bill that we've got a bowling match tonight.

I'm on a team with Bill, Fred, and my best friend Joe. I hoped that Joe was feeling better because he was a no show at work today. His absence was one of the reasons I was late due to working shorthanded. I came home exhausted. Wondering what had happened to my family didn't calm me down. In fact, truth be told, I was hot, sweaty, angry, also frustrated with Emily that she failed to make her and the kids whereabouts known and that she failed to get home in time to make dinner. I walked into the garage to my beer fridge and grabbed a cold beer from the shelf and popped it open.

The garage was in a sense my main cave. When I tinkered with something at my work bench, I enjoyed a cold one now and again. It gave me space to keep enough on hand in case a friend or two dropped by. I tried her cell phone and it went directly to voicemail. With beer in hand, I walked inside the house. I looked at the clock, it was now 5:50pm. I needed to shower and dress soon if I was to make warmups. I worried about Emily and the girls. It unlike her to leave without a note or not call if she expected to be late. I thought, maybe she's unable to call because they've been in an accident.

I grabbed my phone and called her mom to see if she has heard from Em. "Hi Mom, it's Jake. Listen, Em and the girls aren't home and she didn't leave a note. Her phone goes right to voicemail. Have you seen them or heard from her by any chance?"

"Jason, she dropped off the girls earlier and asked me to keep them overnight. She told me she had some shopping to do and had planned to be home by the time you got off work. The girls are doing their homework, do you want to speak with them?"

"No Mom. I'm glad their okay. I've got to bowl tonight and I'm in a hurry. I'm sure Em is shopping and lost track of time. Thanks for watching them. Goodnight."

I decided to head up the stairs and grab a shower. I reached my bedroom and my knees buckled. Lying in my bed was my wife naked and fast asleep laying in the arms of her lover, Joe. I grabbed the bowling ball from my bag that sat near the door. Then I hurled it at the mirror attached to her grandmother's old dresser that Emily loved so much. The glass shattered, along with the foregoing silence, and lie in broken shards along with our happy lives.