Adira

     “The saddest truth about betrayal is that it rarely comes from your enemies. As if it is easier to forgive an enemy over someone you loved. But I have found one love since I became single again; silence. Silence is the love of my life now and it never betrays!” Adira confided to a an old friend with glistening tears, not of sorrow, but tears of joy as she has realized she alone is the one she should love and trust the most. Now, she can rebuild her life both physically and emotionally. 

     “But Adira,” her friend inquired clasping her hands within hers, “how and why did it take so long for you to learn to love and trust yourself first? And now in our elder years, how do we rebuild so easy?”

     “I am old now, I suppose. Not suppose – I mean I know I’m an old lady now and my house has been empty for many years since the man I loved left me in my youth, forever. Oh, but the silence afterward that has never ceased within its walls.” Here, Adira fixed her composure and added, “silence is my true soul mate and it will never betray me.” Here a fresh stream flew down Adira’s coarse and wrinkly face as she continued wide-eyed, “I’m old!”

     Adira’s friend knew that this was the unspoken cue to leave Adira’s house. “I love you, Adira,” her friend planted a delicate kiss onto Adira’s forehead and without saying a word more, withdrew down the hall and out the front door. 

      Adira began to writhe in her bed until she reached for her glass of water on the nightstand, instead tipping it over the edge where it shattered onto the wooden floorboards. Adira exhaled her frustrations of growing old and sunk back into her sheets, drifting back and back as sleep overcame her. And she laid unconscious for the next few hours. 

     The last dim streak of the blue twilight outside her bedside window gave little light. Adira’s eyelids fluttered before opening to the near darkness. “So many years ago you were here beside me, one to anchor, when all had fallen, now you’re gone. My empty nest that never cradled children but it cradled us warmly. I remember us wanting children, now the house is silent, BUT THE SILENCE NEVER BETRAYED ME!” Adira shouted agonizingly as it echoed throughout the empty house.