The Silence Woke Her

It seemed more than a little odd that she woke from such a pleasant dream with a sudden start, only to find herself in the middle of complete, uninterrupted, desolate silence.  What was even stranger, was that she knew that it was the complete absence of sound that woke her.  The complete lack of the usual night noises, or any unusual ones for that matter.  She could not hear the traffic on the street six stories below.  There wasn't a single sound from the neighbors in the apartment next door, no stirring pr shuffling across the floor in the apartment above.  Just nothing.  No crickets, no rats, no crying babies or barking dogs.  There wasn't the usual tink-tink-tink from the faucet in the kitchen that the super had yet to repair.  The air conditioning wasn't blowing.  Her grandmothers clock on the dresser wasn't ticking.  Nothing.  She quietly tried her voice with a simple "hello".  It went unanswered, but at least she heard it's familiar sound.  That has to be a good sign she thought out loud and then chuckled to herself as she realized that she was only talking to fill the silence.  She wasn't exactly sure what she would have done if there had been a reply, and the fact that the wasn't a reply had to be another good sign.  Maybe the clock on the dresser needed to be wound up, and maybe the faucet in the kitchen was fixed while she had been at work earlier and she just hadn't noticed.  It didn't feel hot in her room, so maybe the air conditioning hadn't needed to turn on.  She decided to go check the thermostat, the faucet, and the lock on every window and the front door.

All was as it should be.  The faucet wasn't dripping, the thermostat appeared to be reading below the magic number it would have to rise to before the air conditioning started, and all of the windows and doors were locked.  She went back to her room, and looked at her grandmother's old clock.  She missed her grandmother in that moment as she recalled this clock her grandmother's mantle, and the the smells of the delicious things her grandmother used to bake.  She shook her head as she returned to reality and then began to look, or rather feel around, for the clock's winding key.  She didn't find it resting on the base of the clock where she usually left it.  She felt around the top of the dresser, near the base of the clock, thinking it had rolled off where she had placed it, but it wasn't there.  She decided to wait until morning to look further.  It was late, and she was still tired.  She walked back to the edge of her bed, and was once again bothered by the silence that surrounded her.  Instead of climbing back beneath the covers, she walked cautiously to the bedroom window.  She peered though that blinds and saw nothing.  Just the fire escape, and the building across the alley.  She thought this was good at first, but began to worry again when she didn't see a single car on the street where it met the alley.  She went back to bed, but never got back to sleep.

A few hours later gave up hoping for sleep as the sun began to stream in the window, accompanied by yet more complete and total silence.  Did the whole city take the day off from work she thought as she headed for the one small bathroom in her two room apartment.  She relieved her full bladder, flushed the toilet, and turned on the shower.  The water only ran for a second and stopped.  She turned the bathroom faucet on, and no water was produced.  She ran to the kitchen, and found a lack of water there as well.  She grabbed her robe and slippers from the bedroom and started for the neighbor's apartment across the hall.  She banged on the door.  No answer.  She banged again, only harder.  Still no answer.  She tried the next door neighbor on the right, and the next door neighbor on the left, and then even tried to get the Chinese family two doors down and across the hall to answer even though they didn't speak a work of English.  No answer.  She returned to her apartment and locked herself back inside.  The silence, no water, no neighbors, no traffic on the street below, had all started to make her scared.  She tried to turn on the TV.  No power.  She tried to turn on the clock radio beside the bed, and it had no power either.  She reached for the phone that hung on the wall in the kitchen, and as she did, congratulated herself on skipping the more expensive, cordless model, as it would be useless with the power out as it appeared to be.  No dial tone.  She felt her chest tighten and new she was on the verge of a panic attack.  Her cell phone wouldn't come to life either.  She ran back to the bathroom as she recalled that they toilet had flushed, and tried to flush it again.  Nothing happened and she began to sob as the fear set in.

She had to do something.  Sitting here crying wasn't going to fix anything or give her any answers.  She quickly got dressed, grabbed her purse, keys, and useless cell phone.  She had to find out what was going on, and see if hers was the only building having this problem.  She opened the front door and was halfway to the elevator before she realized that she was going to have to take the stairs. She headed for the stairwell, and descended the six flights quickly, all the while dreading the return climb up those same six flights if power wasn't restored before she got back home.  She exited the building and looked up and down the street.  No cars, no people, no pets, no sounds.  She was completely alone.  She walked down the street a few blocks, looking into every window and door she could see through.  Not a soul could be found, not a single light turned on.  There weren't any TV's playing old movies or the news, and not a single radio played even one note softly in the distance.  She could hear not a single phone ringing, and she couldn't here any fights from young siblings over a treasured toy or even the wind blowing through a tree. 

She was completely alone.  Totally and completely alone.  She stopped at a bench at a bus stop, and cried.