A still pool of water serene, shallow, and undisturbed.
My world of silence, completely void of colour or movement, until a stone was thrown into the center of the calm pool creating iridescent ripples across its smooth surface. That single chaotic event somehow triggered the opening into a world with sound. Before which, I had never heard the crash of a pin drop, or the hush of thunder. I felt like I had fallen into an ocean with great tidal waves crashing against me, smothering me. It was unbelievable how anyone could endure this endless barrage of noises.
After my mind became more attuned to the tones and volumes, I decided to venture out to experience this new sense. I came upon a street, and watched the speedy retreat of cars as they zoomed by. The sound was like the colours of a bee with black and yellow stripes. The yellow was when the pitch came to the highest point while the black was when the sound died away. It gave me a sense of urgency as the cars hastily rushed past each other. Then I heard a piercing cry from a child like a silver sword, both sharp and smooth, had been stabbed into my being. It terrified me, but I refused to let one sound turn me away from this new experience. It was the whole cacophony of noises that drove me to seek sanctuary from the sounds of the street.
I ran into a store in hopes that a physical barrier would obstruct the torrent of sounds, but within I found a more enticing array of noises. It wasn’t erratic or baleful, but controlled and wondrous. In words it is labeled as music, but in truth it is so much more. It was like looking upon a beautiful tapestry made up of a collection of coloured strings intertwined to produce a magnificent panorama of sounds. Each string had its own sound, colour, and shade. The colour represented the sound, the shade the volume, and the pattern the rhythm. At time, different colours are more dominant, in which that sound is heard above all others. Then as you begin to understand each place for each string, you begin to see the picture that the music was portraying. That picture can sometimes be seen, but usually it is felt.
I sat there listening to the beautiful sounds of an orchestra, when suddenly it began to feel as though I was falling deeper into this dark, deep sea - The sounds that were, a moment ago, crystal clear began to diminish. It felt like I was drowning while looking up at the surface. I saw the radiant colours fade to ebon - the colour of silence.
I realized then that my new world had shattered around me as the last ripple vanished from the still pool of water.
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