The Whole World is Silent

The whole world is silent

There are no people on its once bustling streets, the serene serenity of the unknown seems like it’s here to stay. But we all know that the world will soon become complicated again.

The towns that would usually be full of life and atmosphere are now empty of everything. The feeling of uncertainty spreading throughout the world like a dye spreading across clothing, dispersing across the delicate cloth until it covers it in colour. The clapping of the people, cheering and shouting into the silence, in a wishful hope for there to be noise once again, for the silence to be lifted.

The towns and cities stood still in the evening light of the radiant full moon as it cast its streets. The evening air was cold, but even so the people still cheered and shouted and clapped, praising. The cars that once buzzed here and there now sat parked on the side of the roads, their headlights off their wheels still – rigid with anticipation of when they would turn again. But still the people full of hope clapped and cheered all through the night, country after country they screamed and shouted throughout every land high and low the sound of hope could be heard.

The shadows of all those no longer living floated aimlessly above their loved one’s head and still they clapped – the people clapped and shouted and cheered and praised those who had lost their lives and those who had tried to save them. The constant fear that lingered in everyone’s minds was not put to rest by those who clapped and cheered but it was eased and replaced by a sense of belonging and a sense of hope, and a feeling of just being able to do something to try and help – to feel like they were helping – helping to give hope to those who had the hard job, those responsible for the lives of others, those who had someone else’s blood on their fingers, those who blamed themselves for someone else’s death, those who did everything they could, but not enough. These people where the ones being clapped for, being cheered for, and they were the ones responsible for the lives of others, and so the clapping continued, the cheering continued, and the screaming and the shouting all around the world carried on.

This cheering this happiness was the hope that someday everything would be normal, and so as the night drew out the clappers and the shouters and the cheerers went inside one small step at a time; the noise faded the clapping faded, the shouting faded, the screaming faded, the cheering faded - and then it stopped to reveal once again the deathly hollow silence that engulphed once more the world and the people.

But they will be back all of them, wishing for the world to be normal once again, but this wish will take time and sadly time is something that we do not have.

Isabel King – Year 9