“Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
— Haruki Murakami
Luke suffered several broken ribs, head trauma and severe internal bleeding. For everyday he spent in the hospital someone was there, waiting silently in the seat beside his bed, eyes never leaving his too still and pale body, waiting for some small reassurance that he would be okay – a slight twitch of his finger, a flicker of movement beneath his eyelids. Anything at all.
For weeks there was nothing and if anyone was beginning to feel discouraged they hid it well.
Then, on the third week, he woke up. But it was not the reunion she had thought it would be. The first question he asked was where was Nathan, was he okay, could he visit him. And Audrey had watched his mother’s face fall, saw Jayke turn his head away, saw his father take that unwilling step forward, watched his lips move, tracked the tears leaking down his cheeks. And she saw, as though in slow motion, Luke’s eyes lose the panic they had held, replaced by emptiness.
In that moment, as the news of his brother’s fate was spoken, it was as though a wall slid between him and reality, blocking off everything – burying it deep where it would do no harm. And after that, Luke stopped talking.
YOU ARE READING
Coffees with Luke & Audrey
Romance"We're all looking for the same things in the end." She thinks people are mundane. He thinks people are fascinating. Somehow, they fall in love.
