At night, I sat down in front of my laptop, doing a not so important work. I heard the rain’s hammering voice outside to which my mind unintentionally paid attention. Suddenly, it thundered loud to let off the current. The electronic devices in the surrounding went off to create silence. I reacted acting disgusted, “Damn it, current went off!” At the same moment, I heard howling voices of neighbouring kids in excitement. I flipped the laptop to let it sleep, then without even attempting to light up a candle, I went straight to settle on my bed. Lying on bed, looking upwards at the ceiling, I saw nothing but darkness.
I gave ears to solo voice of rain that sounded like a sad poetry of the sky. With the bright beam of lightening, I saw the ceiling fan with its shadow casted on the roof, followed the terrible thundering sound which was not up to my liking. I continued staring upwards at the same darkness. Then for the second time, I saw the fan with its shadow casted on the roof. I doubted if it lightened again, then realized it wasn’t lightening this time, but was my phone’s screen notifying a message, yet I paid no notice.
While continuing cozy position on bed, my mind welcomed a thought that questioned me, “Why did neighbouring kids howl in excitement while I acted being disgusted? Am I not happy as they are when the current went off?” I accepted the lie in my previous deed, “Yes, I actually felt nice when the current went off.” Don’t know why but I feel a weird kinda happiness everytime when current goes off at night, not sure if it’s love for temporary darkness or if it’s love for the silence attained when every device goes mute. In that quietude, I hear the tipsy leaves, I hear the foxy insects, I hear the mischievous kids, and I feel alive like I am living in the real world, not in any virtual world. In those minutes, I don’t escape into quietness, rather I break into nature’s true voice.
After a while, the rain stopped, current returned back to electronic devices, and a virtual world was built up around me within seconds. I exclaimed my next lie, “Uff, finally current came back!” but in fact, I secretly missed the silent absence of light. -Noel
