They called out my name time and again, but were met with nothing but silence.. How many of you reading this have experienced hearing your name called by several people, or just one person, either while sleeping, when home alone or even in a crowd? It might come across as a sharp voice in the night, a whisper from somewhere in the house or a simple nudge of the wind when out somewhere. We waken, with a bit of a jolt and look over our shoulder into the darkness. In a crowd, we search unknown faces for someone familiar. At home, we pause whatever we’re doing, look down the hallway or stairway. We wait for the mysterious whisper to repeat itself, this time with a bit more clarity and more familiarity.
I’ll bet it’s happened to you, hasn’t it? How did you respond IF you responded? I, for one, never have, not verbally, anyway. In my mind, I usually ask what the voice wants and do so politely. You never know who might be on the other side.
If ever I hear a voice while sleeping, I give myself time to wake up and think about where that dream was taking me. While home alone and a somewhat familiar voice calls my name in the stillness of the house, it usually takes me back to when my mother and her Alzheimer’s briefly lived with us. They were quite a strong-willed team. Back then, mother never called me by my name (she no longer knew me), it was usually a demanding, bellowing, profanity-laced, vocalization from our guest room. From behind her closed door, there were names I never heard before or comments I’ll avoid sharing here.
When out at a social event, or in a crowd, now and then I’ve heard my name called. That very well may have been directed to someone else called “Patty” but the sound of the voice was very familiar. The more I looked around, and listened, it quickly faded away and the silence that followed was full of unspoken, unanswered, questions.
Of course, our memories often replay the sounds of familiar voices which make it seem as if someone is calling out to us even when no one is there. It’s a brain game. Many like to believe that some spiritual entity is trying to reach out to us and the silence which follows is because a message was lost or unable to be delivered. Then, there’s the possibility of a premonition. Possibly, an important event, not necessarily bad or good, is about to take place. Taking steps further, the spirit behind the voice might be lonely and seeking to reach out for reasons unknown. Perhaps, the attempt is to make amends for a past transgression or seek validation from a hurt received; the entity behind the voice might want to warn of danger or even something a great deal more sinister. The silence that follows can be almost deafening.
However any of us have been met with silence, have responded the same way, and whether we choose to investigate further, will then shape the directions that our stories take. Such stories are meant to be shared. Silence seems to have a voice all its own.
From the Writer’s Workshop: Write a story starting with the line “They called out her name time and again, but were met with nothing but silence.”
