The Quiet One

Chapter 1

  Words have power. They can destroy and cause so much pain it can become unbearable. She had seen the pain of words and that was why she decided not to talk. She was afraid to mutter a single word. Her parents did not know what was wrong; even though they were the reason for her selective mutism. She went to school in the beginning, but it became too hard to accomplish without a voice, so she started home schooling. Her parents became sad and disheartened. She gave them credit for trying to help (fix) her world and reality. The truth of the matter was that she just didn't want to talk to anyone. So she went through her days with a sketch pad or mini white board or tablet. One of her parents efforts to help her were bringing her to therapy once a week. However, She quite liked the way things were at the moment. Since she did not spend her time talking, she started dedicating her time to more useful things like observing the world around her and developing opinions. She read in all her spare time and wrote stories. However, she hid these stories from her parents and therapist and the rest of the world. She wanted them to be hers and hers alone. She did not know when she would speak again. That was a question her therapist often asked her. She just knew that with time she would eventually gain a desire to speak. Even without talking, she did well in her schooling. She was a very organized person and loved to tally up her time and dictate how she would spend it. Which made her odd compared to the other children her age, who played and gossiped. Her parents constantly took note of her old soul, well, before she became mute.