Noise

Tuesday night, 6:00 PM.

She lay in her room all alone. It's not like she was lonely. In fact, she loved being alone after a long day. She loved just spending time with herself and reflecting. She took out her bag and opened up her schoolwork. She often lacked the motivation or concentration to even begin her homework, but tonight she was prepared to try again nonetheless. When she looked at what she had to do, she found that the task seemed daunting. She took a deep breath in and then let it out.

"It's alright, you can do this" she whispered to herself.

She straightened her back and began to type. At first, it was hard to stay focused, as she was very good at drifting off into her own little world. But eventually, she clicked the switch in her mind to focus, and she worked at a stable pace. She felt proud of herself for being able to get this far in her homework. Perhaps, she thought, I might be able to get something done for once.

Then just like that, her hope of completing her homework was cut off. She heard a loud noise echo throughout the house. It sounded like an angry bear, or an earthquake, or maybe the intense war cry of an ancient warrior. However, the source of this raging sound was not from any of these; it was from her father. No, not again, she thought, not now!

She didn't know why he was yelling or who he was yelling at, or even what he was yelling about! All she knew was that he was yelling, and she hated it. She couldn't handle it when he yelled. Although her father would never lay a hand on her, just the noise alone sent a sharp pain through her body and she felt herself fall into a panicky state. In her thoughts, she begged for him to stop. Please, she cried inside, just stop all this noise!

It's not like she hated her father. No, she loved him with all of her heart. She knew that they were like two peas in a pod, and that he did his very best to make sure their family was surviving, but living comfortably in this great world. She knew that he had his own struggles and that he was trying his best to cope with them. They've been through so much together. She could never hate him.

But she hated the yelling. She hated how he yelled all the time. It burned her ears and pierced her heart. It sent her mind into a deep swirl of fear and pain. She could feel her chest ache with sharp pains and she felt a migraine coming on. As soon as she thought that it couldn't get any worse, she heard the ear-splitting squawk of their bird. The screeching of the bird and the yelling of her father blended into a truly terrifying sound, like a bloodcurdling, ear-piercing scream. She couldn't handle this anymore.

There was no way that she would be able to focus on her homework now. She closed her computer and plugged her headphones into her phone. She put her headphones on and turned up her music as loud as she could. Block it out, she thought, just block it out.

She listened to her music for hours, never moving from where she sat. She hummed to the melodies and calmed herself through the lyrics. She never shed a tear, for she was too strong for that. However, she asked the same questions over and over again:

Will the yelling ever stop? Why do my efforts to help him always fail? Will the world ever fall silent? Why is there always so much noise?

When she eventually took her headphones off, all was quiet. She looked at her door and noticed a faint essence of light peering through under the door. When she peeked out of her bedroom into the hall, she saw a light glowing at the end of the hallway. She froze for a moment and wondered whether to leave her bedroom or not. She decided that she didn't want to be out there, so she shut her door once again. She attempted to continue her work, but she couldn't. She felt completely exhausted, both mentally and physically. She put away her homework, fixed her bed, and shut her eyes as her mind drifted off into sleep. She would surely curse herself out in the morning for not getting her work done, but for now, she was content. The world was dark and quiet. There was no more noise that night.