Tom woke to no sound. Nothing. Not even the flap of the paper stuck in the fan grate. He rubbed his ears to unblock them and still nothing filled them with the sounds of the fan, the cat meowing, the dogs barking, or the cars moving across the railroad crossing behind his house.
Not even the blood whooshing past his ear drums made a sound. He heard nothing.
He promptly panicked and screamed for Miss Marble to come quickly. However, he didn’t hear any sound come from his voice. Nothing filled the silence. No sound came to his ears.
And Miss Marble never came.
He wandered down the stairs to the kitchen looking for her or his sister Lacey. Nobody was in the kitchen and they had made no coffee. The cat who normally sunned herself in the window
He stood on the porch looking for the paper. No wind, no sound of the leaves, no creaking of limbs or twinkling of the chimes. No sound.
He saw a car coming up the drive but didn’t hear the crunch of the gravel on the tires. The car stopped and his sister opened the door. He didn’t hear it either as it shut and so he went to meet them. He waved and pointed at his ears.
Lacey ignored him and walked around to the passenger door to assist Miss Marble who was slowly exiting the car. He watched as the two women held each other and walked around him as if he wasn’t there.
They were wearing black and crying. He reached to console them and his arms went right through them.
That’s when he realized why there was no sound. He could no longer hear the tires, or the wind, or the fan because he was not alive. He cried out in anguish and heard nothing come from his mouth.
Then he realized the truth: ghosts don’t hear because they don’t make any sound.
© 2019, Michael Shawn Sommermeyer. All rights reserved.
