Hushed

Mona Kuhn

So much has changed in the past couple of weeks. I feel different, not necessarily more content, just--cleansed. The parents were informed. Much was left to be desired in our conversations, but life is all about desire, isn't it? Desire is, afterall, the cog-wheels of dreams, the potential for newness. For now, they live in silence, hoping, desiring change. We do talk, but the words are largely meaningless; I can see them melt away, the way ice cubes slip into non-existence on the hot pavement, silently, without protest.

There is an inescapable sense of stillness within me, one that I cannot shake, and it scares me to think that the stillness should remain for good. I, too, see all around me a marked change in my classmates; the second year has imparted upon us a sense of reckoning, the realization that this is the true calm before the storm. We are quieted by the fear of the unknown, and I feel the overwhelming silence encroaching on all sides. It hushes us all.

So much has changed in the past couple of weeks. And I'm waiting for the storm.