The rest is silence...

The night was cold and windy. The bright star studded sky was only ironic of her current spirits. She sat in silence and in deep thought - not her usual self. Not at all. The nagging melancholic feeling made her uncomfortable. Those that once gave her self-confidence, now seemed herculean tasks. A number of errands stood lined up and lots more awaited her sincere attention. She was dealing with them, one-at-a-time, hoping that she wouldn't mess up trying to multi task.


As she looked out into the sky from the window, her father's words of wisdom echoed in her ears - "And this too shall pass." She felt much better, but the feeling didn't last long. These were the same words that her father used whenever she got over-excited about nothing. Her father's use of puns, at times, were too bitter for her taste. She silently cursed herself for remembering it. Quite contrastingly, her mother's theories were more plain and straight. There was one instance in the past when she was upset and her mother came up to her saying, "Do you remember what was bothering you the very same day, a year ago?" With a puzzled and blank look, she answered back, "Don't think so." Her mother reassuringly smiled at her and continued, "That's the same question i will be asking you a year later and am sure you will have the same answer." It took some time for those words to sink in and make sense to her. Finally, when they did, she said, "Mom! You will make a good lawyer."


She spun back to the present and found herself smiling. Just then the door bell rang and she got up to attend it. Standing there was her best friend. She couldn't have wished for a better person to be by her side at this moment. He gave her the best of his smiles and dropped a chocolate into her hands. She wondered how he could be so cheerful inspite of his current problems. That was one attitude she truly admired in him. He whistled past her, walked in and quickly helped himself with some ice-cold water. She opened her mouth and began, "Hey, you know what?" He mockingly made a swift finger-on-your-lips gesture, like their games teacher in school and settled in the couch with a packet of chips. Turning on the tv, he browsed through the many channels until he finally found his. The next minute, loud football commentary filled the entire hall. She gave him an evil look and repented for having told him that they would feel much better in each other's company. She should have figured out the sarcasm in his voice when he accepted to drop by. She hit him hard with the pillow in her hand and vanished into her room. So different was the way people handled pressure and stress. As for her, it always remained that the deepest of feelings were to be expressed in silence.