The Resonance Of Silence

Believe it or not, I've been working on my book...

These last few weeks have been crazy and I've been far from any sort of serious commitments to anything really...
Still, last saturday afternoon I managed to go to my friend Dickon's Zine Picnic held outside, on the Royal Festival Hall balcony!
Met some interesting chaps and basically talked the whole time... just scribbled a couple of ideas I had on my way there on a sheet of paper and that was it.

But I think the last week or so has been productive. I managed to finish 7 stories for the New Scientist competition.
I sent one today.
Not the one I had told people I was going to, but rather the one people kept mentioning.
So, Collapse, rather than Legacy.

What I'm planning on doing is posting here these stories one after another.

And I'm gonna leave Collapse and Legacy to the end...

Not all of the stories met the 350 word maximum that the competition hailed but, there you go... you got to let your ideas breathe!

So, without any other delay...


THE RESONANCE OF SILENCE
(491 word count)
The sun shone on the beach and, apart from the man that stood reading by the edge of the water, there was no one in sight.
Taking a deep breath he closed the book he held in his hands and looked around, observing the long deserted beach, the line of trees whispering in the wind and the rhythmic crash of the waves. And he found himself incredibly close to everything.
He shivered.
“Daddy! Daddy!” He heard his daughter call out behind him. “Mommy wants you!”
“Does she now?” He said. “And what is it this time?”
“It’s a surprise!” said the little girl, grabbing his hand, pulling him away from his reveries.
He smiled and began to follow up the pebbled path.
“How frail is memory”, he mused. “And how frail are we…”
The irregular trail led to an old asphalt road, gnawed away by the seasons.
“Gaia has proven quite resilient… to be expected I suppose...”
His daughter picked a red and blue flower from a crack in the pavement. Then she started to dance and swirl around with it, singing a melody that kept changing, including whatever sounds fancied her attention.
“-though we naturally tend to assume that simply because we have intelligence this somehow enables us to escape consequences.” He looked at the small child, taking in more than what his eyes could see.“I think we can say in all probability that, in fact, it’s the other way around. We create more consequence rather than escape it. Still… not all outcomes are bad…” He gave a short run and picked up the girl. She giggled in delight. Kissing her, he placed her on his shoulders.
“Honey, daddy is getting old.” He said. “And you’re getting heavy!”
She looked at him in childlike seriousness.
“I don’t feel heavy. Plus I exercise plenty.”
He smiled but said nothing.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“How was it like when you were growing up? Was it very different?”
He looked up, not knowing what to say. She peered down, grinning widely.
“Nah… I suppose it was more or less the same. Only with more people. And less water… But, people will be people. And water hasn’t changed that much either.” He looked up at her, smiling.
“So why are you always thinking?” she said.
“I don’t know. It’s not like I can change anything. But sometimes… sometimes I wonder if there truly ever was a choice.” He said. “Knowing ourselves as we do… perhaps this was what had to happen.”
“I don’t think that’s it.” She said, trying to stare at him from above.
“Really? What is it then?!”
“Mommy says it’s the silence. That’s what you really like.”
“Aah… maybe.” He said. “Maybe you’re right. It’s deeper and richer now. The silence is the only thing we didn’t leave behind.” He took another deep breath, gazing at the empty highway, stretching endlessly into the horizon. “The silence is our true legacy to the future…”
END

peace