Solitary speaker

Her life was defined by two words ‘Silence’ and ‘tears’. Often she thought these were her only two friends. The day she was born only one person had smiled at her, her grandfather who survived only three days after the smile. Her mother and father had both hoped for a son and try as hard as they may, which they did not, they could not smile. The rest of her family was simply astonished to see a cleft lipped child and did not know whether to be happy or sad for the kid.

As she grew up the cleft lip needed attention, which was given by a doctor who could not bear to look at her while working. Her soulful large eyes were the mirror to the pain she felt even if her mouth gave no indication of the pain registered. Her pediatrician too found it difficult to treat her when she fell sick as she would hardly react like a normal infant. Not that there was anything abnormal with her except that may be she was born with a adult brain which could easily gauge emotions and would refuse to give trouble to anyone even though people such as the pediatrician expected trouble. Her infamy with her doctors did not endear her to her mother who had to endure the illness and sickness along with the child. Her father simply ignored her till the day she went to school.

At school, her classmates did not find an all compassing 4 year old kid all that interesting and she found that she could not strike up a friendship even with the most frail creature of her year. She was a moderate student and thus could not even attract a teacher her way, the teachers always attending students of high caliber to encourage them further or low performing ones to get them to study.

The school years had one interlude to the silence. Her father who was the best in whatever he did, expected the same of his own child, girl or boy. Her moderate performance was not to be tolerated by a high stickler father and hence he scolded and scolded her with his full lung capacity and she endured it with silence and tears. It seemed to her only tears could understand her as they came to her whenever she wanted.

School ended and then began college and with it came boys. Although her cleft lip had been operated, there was a scar left on her face for all times to come. Apart from that she was not an antidote. The guys tried to woo her just to see who could bring out a smile on her face, who could get her to drink a cup of coffee with him, who could ask her to take a ride with him. She knew it was all amusement for them and determinedly stayed away from all of them. Her father had given up on her till now and her mother was worried about her own health to take notice of the girl.

Everyone around her spoke to her in few words and she answered them with silence and the work she was supposed to do. Few people came to like her because of these traits of her but could not get past her shield of silence to befriend her. She had also got habituated with her loneliness and did not know she could fill the emptiness with some people.

The story of her life would have continued as such had she not visited the zoo the day she did for the first time in her life when she was already an adult. There she was seen by him who liked her instantly and came to her house to ask her hand in marriage. Her parents eagerly got her married at the earliest possible date after seeing that the man was eligible for their daughter.

Her wedding day changed her life forever….