B The Awakening

AWAKENING.

He lay looking into the room, not seeing it perspective, but aware of
it's presence.
No sound could be heard, - but he was listening - listening for the
voices which had been so feint and yet so penetrating. For many nights
he had laid here, trying to understand and make out what was being
said, hardly daring to breath, knowing that the voices would stop when
any other sound was made.

No other person seemed to understand. He had tried in vain to speak and
explain, but they only smiled, nodded, and shaking there heads, turned
away to go elsewhere, and talk of other things.
Their conversations drifting back like the buzzing of a bee, with
occasional laughter and the banging of doors.

Sounds were his life. He could follow what was happening during the
day, by listening to the noises and activity inside and outside the
house. Even quite a distance away he heard the traffic and clatter of
trains, children laughing, and birds singing their songs of the
seasons.

The room's darkness began to thin, and furniture took on shape as the
dawn's light heralded the beginning of a new day. He knew that today
would be different, and was certain that there would be a change.

This was the first time in many dawns that he had felt this way. He had
given up attempting to talk to people as they gazed at him in his bed.
So many times they had looked into his face with concern, and sometimes
tears. He had shouted and screamed, -- but, -- the sounds had stayed
within his mind, not reaching his mouth, or the ears of the visiting
well meaning friends and family, until finally, he had now become
resigned to his barrier of silence.

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The daily visitation of the nurse was enjoyable.
She was young and always chattered away while washing him, turning his
limp body to the left and right, drying and powdering, finally planting
a kiss upon his forehead before leaving, after performing her caring
duties and holding her one way conversation.

The day past in it's usual routine of happenings. - But! He still had
this strong feeling of expectation and happy anticipation. He had long
since learned not to wish time to pass, for he had discovered that the
mathematics of time were. (Think of time. = Extension of time. ) But,
even so, he knew that something was different.

The day eventually took it's coarse, and the house again became quiet.
The room surrendered its solidity, and darkness covered everything with
its mantle, leaving him with a feeling of disappointment and
emptiness.

He opened his eyes at the sound of his name being called, and was
surprised to see a stranger smiling at him from the bedside, holding
out his hand, and saying.
" Come with Me. " ------ He sat up, and extended his hand to the
stranger with a feeling of extreme happiness. Rising from the bed, to
look into the deep, warm, affectionate eyes of his new friend.
The stranger smiled, and turning, led him along a path which opened
before them into a warmth and brilliance of light, from a source which
was not discernible

He laughed, and ran foreward with a lightness of step remembered from
his youth, to be greeted by friends whom he had long since seen, and
felt surrounded by love and affection.

In the light of day, the nurse looked with a tear in her eye at her
silent charge, -- performed her last duties, and kissed his forehead
with a mixture of loss and happiness.

G.D.J.