Flash Fiction Fun!

As one of my (two) followers is (at least) a Wannabe Writer, I thought I'd have a quick go. Following this little blog here, my attempt. Okay ... much less than 1000 words, but what can you expect for 15 minutes' work?  :)

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Silent Smile Satisfaction

I live in silence.

There are times when I'll look at you. Times when you think I'll speak, but I never do.

There are those times when I catch your eye, and you seem to understand. There's a glimpse. Something in your look that hints at understanding, and then it goes. It goes when I see your jaw tighten, when I watch your chest rise, and the air fill your lungs, preparing to say something. Sometimes it lasts longer. The understand. The moment. The point where I think you might know. But it fades. You kill it with your words. Choking away the silence and shattering the chance you might hear me. You speak and I drown, and there's simply no hope for me then. No hope.

Now, when I recall when there was hope, it seems like a foreign land. A country I once visited so long ago that I can't tell whether the recollection is a real memory, or simply something I imagined. If it's a real memory, then it's no familiar to me now than you are. So those times, those short times, I find myself hoping that it is just an invention of my mind. At least then I'll know there was never a time when we did share those thoughts; when our ideas were as one, and the future was always bright and full of colour. And hope. Ah, yes, that hope again. God preserve us from hope. Acceptance is such a better option I've found.

Then there are those times. The look. That glimpse. That sub-second stare, when I think that ... But no. Then you speak, and it's gone.

Ha! There you are. Looking at me all this time, as I've thought these thoughts. There you've been staring at me with that new look you've had for ... how long has it been? When did 'that' look first appear? Was I looking at you when it happened? Was it one of those times when you looked as though you wouldn't speak? A time when I hoped for hope. Ha ha. You see, I'm making myself laugh now. And yet still you look at me. The new look. Lingering longer than I've known it before. What is it ...

But now you turn, and walk away. Leaving me untouched by your words. I would smile if I could. If anyone would see my smile, and listen to the gentle breath slipping from my lips. Alone again. Safe again.

Your words unsaid. You. Me. Apart. The silence. At last. At last.