Inspiration Monday – Waking Up to Silence

Prompt courtesy of Be Kind Rewrite`s Inspiration Monday challenge. Head on over there, take a look at some great pieces of writing and give it a try.

After what seemed to be months of housing an army faction,  a marching band and the loudest fans of any sports team, my wife and I awoke to silence on a Thursday morning.  The holidays were over and the houseguests had left in packs and then trickled out until the last two stragglers left the previous afternoon.

The television wasn’t screaming in high-pitched voices hawking brightly coloured cereal and the latest plastic-moulded fantasy object for dolls. No pots clanged in the kitchen, no groggy voices rose over cups of too-weak coffee brewed by the feeble, who complained between sips and slurps about their preference for instant. No fists banging on bathroom doors, no muffled hollers from behind shower curtains telling everyone to wait their turn. No stomping feet from the storey above, or acrobats barging up and down stairs. No one yelling for everyone to keep quiet because some people were still trying to sleep.

There was only the sound of the bed creaking as we lifted ourselves from our pillows to rest on elbows and appreciate the lack of din and clamour. I looked to her pillow-lined face, thumbed the grain of sleep-sand from the corner of her eye and smiled.

We both slid back down to our pillows and pulled the sheets and blankets to our chins.

There were dishes to wash, sheets, towels to clean, mattresses to fold up and put away, a tree to be taken down, pine needles to be vacuumed from the carpet, garbage and recycling to be dragged out to the curb, leftovers to be thrown out, especially the fruitcake that mysteriously appeared and no one touched.

But for now, we decided, without speaking, the very best thing would be to lay down and enjoy the muteness of the cold winter morning.

Tags: challenge, flash fiction, holidays, inspiration mondays, relief, short story