Rhapsody of Silence

Creative Writing  |  Merlin

When you were around, everything was a symphony. The smiles you cracked once in a while, your eyes shining though the shadows of crowded rooms. Your hair slowly cascading upon your shoulders, your soft skin reaching for my hands. Every little breath of you was like a different chord on a different instrument. Every word was a musical tone, a different color vibrating through the air. You wrote the sheets of music so perfectly and delivered them to me. 

No one but me. You were the maestro and I was your orchestra. You were a puzzle of sounds that I built piece by piece, day after day. You were the most luxurious melody playing in unison with this strange drum inside my chest.

Of all the music I knew about, you were the most interesting to listen to. You were melancholic but hopeful, quiet but arrogant, gentle but harsh.

To obtain your sound quality, the instruments had to push themselves to the brink of their capabilities. And you did not fail to remind them when they weren't doing the job like you wanted.

I swear I looked away when you strangled the electric guitars by their cables for the first time. I pretended not to look the next day at the bruises you left on the woodwinds. I saw anger flourish in the hands I once held close to the drum inside my chest, to caress its tempo and measures.

But, one day you skipped a beat. You tore my heartstrings like a furious violist, leaving the instrument with no voice.

One day you changed tone. You blew in the flute so hard its organs collapsed on the wall.

One day you were clearly off. You pulled the skin of the drums so tightly that it could do nothing but play crippled notes.

One day you became silent. Another shadow in a crowded room.

You left used instruments in the streets, music sheets on the shelves. You left half-notes waiting to be filled.

You became a harrowing silence surrounding every scene.

The echo of your melodies remained a silent whisper in the hands of the clock. Your absence evolved into a presence lurking at me from all possible angles.

The drum inside my chest lost all guidance, its stroll slowly faded away.

And then it stopped.

Nothing was left.

Nothing but your rhapsody of silence.