Whispers of an Empty Voice

I walk down the halls of a place now familiar to me with my books in my arms, I hold them flush against me as if it might protect me from the whispers and the stares. I keep my eyes looking straight forward, not even sparing a glance at the people around.

I don't try to say anything, knowing that it is useless. Now, no one comes up to me anymore and says, "I'm sorry for your loss." My face is blank with my movements emotionless as I reach my destination my last class for the day: English.

English class is the place of torture and heaven for me. You speak to everyone; the attention is on you: you can't hide. But you express yourself while writing, you improve, you write some more. I slowly enter the class, glancing around to find a free seat. I spot a few seats in the back of the class and make my towards them. I don't look or return any of the glances of pity and curiosity at me nor do I catch the eye of teacher who is watching me like a hawk.

I sit down, put my books under chair except for a pencil, my English folder, and a notebook, which I use more for writing stories and music than classwork.

No one comes to sit near me, which I am grateful for. The last thing I want to do is to try to wordlessly answer questions and reply to comments without looking rude.

The bell rings and the last few students rush in, not wanting to be late.

Tuning out the teacher, I stare out the window, wondering why did my life turn out to be this way?  I close my eyes, flashes of what happened haunting my mind, even after these two years.

~~~

"Wren! Wren!"

I turned to my younger sister beside me. It was funny how similar my sister and I were. The same pitch-black hair, shining grey-blue eyes, and identical tender smiles.

"Yeah? What happened Hadley?"

"When are we gonna reach? It's been sooo looong." My sister whined, drawing out the 'o' in 'so' and 'long'.

I chuckled. "I don't know. Ask Mum."

"Wren, don't you tell her to ask me!"

I giggled playfully. "Too late."

"Muuum!" Hadley cried. "When are we going to reach?"

Our mother sighed. "I don't know darling. Ask dad."

Now, dad sighed. "Why do you guys torture me like this? You know how impatient --"

Hadley didn't give dad enough time to finish what he was saying. "Da-ad! How much longer?"

Ignoring what he had said just moments before Dad chuckled. "I think we're almost there."

"Yay!" Her sunny tone and enormous smile made the rest of us smile in return.

A little while later, we reached the beach house we had rented out for the week. Hadley and mum were sleeping, so dad got out and went around the car to wake them up.

I stayed on the driver's side, near the sidewalk of the almost empty road near our beach house. I was so excited that I was finally getting a break from school, because eighth grade was so hard.

I told dad that I was going to take my bags to the house to start unpacking. He replied with a distracted 'okay,' still trying to come up with a way to wake Hadley up without causing her to throw a tantrum about dad disturbing 'her beauty sleep'.

I just smiled and carried my bags down the crosswalk for a few moments until I reached the front porch of the house.

Inserting the copy of key my dad had given me so that I could let myself in anytime in case the house was locked, I stepped in.