The house held its breath, the inhalation and exhalation ceased like a noisy TV set that had been muted abruptly. Abrupt, yes that’s the word ; and it hung in the air for what seemed like forever as I actually came to understand and fully appreciate its meaning.
Abrupt : definition-Sudden and Unexpected.
I was distraught and visibly shaken. My friends had teased in the past about how I sounded like I was laughing whenever I cried ; how I wish this wail would actually transform into a cackle now.
He was gone. They returned from the hospital with the remnants of what he possessed; a cell phone, a book bag, a note pad with illegible writing which he kept as a contact book and other things I was too broken to take note of.
‘What happened?’ I asked in between sobs, ‘what happened to him?’ I asked again.
‘He fell’. ‘He fell’ was the inadequate response that returned my question.
The cell phone begun to ring and for a minute after the ring subsided, we all sat in silence leaving the phone to lie lifeless as if hoping against hope that somehow its owner would suddenly appear and ask us to hand him his phone.
Rosa Armstrong 