LA MADAME SILENCIO

a story by

Danny Perez.

.( Lunch time I rejoice at the mere fact for I work at the mall yet when I take my break for lunch I do not leave the fortress of the mall still I have found a place that allows me to enjoy my time in peaceful tranquility. Why is this spot secluded from the festive of people I do not know yet I am very greatful that this is not a hot spot look at me I'm sounding like an old man I am not also I am not in my teen of years. Time passes when you no longer want to hear people carry on conversations threw there phone. Hear teenagers talk about the most silliest things. To find a place that gives you peace of mind is a treasure to hold on to.

I make it sound like I do not share this peace of mind with anyone else that is false. My partnership with this place seems to be silent. I have my lunch everyday and everyday before I arrive to my secluded place she is always there she sits across from me on a bench. She is an elderly lady. When I arrive all she does is sit there when I leave she takes the same actions. There has not been a transaction of cause and effect between us. She has not made an effective movement that would cause me to react. Say like a person is in a specific place of your area you always have a reaction from what there doing. To them looking for there keys from them standing up you react to there movement. I have seen her everyday since I found this spot still I have not seen her create a movement it is as if she is a statue. I am a person who holds my privacy with high regard it is the reason why my attention is only fixed on the elderly woman when I arrive and when I leave I have assumed that we our kindred spirits that we love the tranquility that is offer to us and we do not want to ruin it bye chit chatter. I leave her to her actions she leaves me to mine it is a partnership that fits me well.

One day all had change. I went to lunch she was once there again the same spot the same time yet my fixation on her was not just an interlude. I had not really ever took a full look of her only glances. All I knew was that she was an elderly woman I had no idea how she looked like. There was no reason for my sudden questions of her they just have entered my mind on this day. I found myself staring at her rudely I do not know what has come over me. While I was staring at her she had to be the most polite person in the world or she must have been an actress a great one too for she acted as if I was not there she did not say a word to me. As I stared I had not seen any movement from her. The only thing that was moving was her eyes.

They zoomed at every direction like private jets any little shadow any sudden movement that occured around her eyes zoomed to that direction. Her eyes did not look like she was frighten bye the suddle occurrences happening around her in fact her eyes seem to be waiting for the arrival of a person. Every movement her eyes looked like they where about to burst into tears of happiness of finally seeing the person. Her eyes sometimes wondered off almost saying that she is skeptic of what she sees she must feel as well. Her eyes once even closed as if she was day dreaming of the arrival of that person while she was doing this I saw something I never seen from her before she was smiling. Soon as she opened her eyes her reality came back to her. That smile soon turn into a fawn. Her eyes showed sadness looking at the possibility that the person will never show. As soon as I think she is about to have tears of sadness her eyes give this look of reassurance to her that it will happen. I have never seen eyes look like there waiting for someone. I have always thought the saying of eyes can tell you something was just a fantasy until this day.

All this time I thought she had wanted it this way I had no idea that she was actually waiting for someone. The whole day after lunch my mind was fixed on her it also carried all the way to my sleep. I laid in my bed but did not sleep I kept wondering if the person she was waiting for alive now and just did not show up. Not showing up everyday though was the question I had in my mind still I found myself taking on her characteristic of wishing that it was a real person she was waiting for an elderly man with an illness of memory loss thats why he doesnt show up. Yet my mind got hit on the side with reality that maybe she had lost a love one and she had never recovered from that news. I feared the latter was the answer that would mean her heart has never healed it is always a sad thing when that happens. The next day I was so anxious to go to lunch where my job seemed more of a bother than other days. I got my lunch I felt like I was running to my spot there she was again steady like tomorrow is never today. This time her eyes where not active as yesterday in fact they were not moving at all. The sadness I saw in them the last day has no comparison to today. Her eyes where half way shut there direction had her looking down to the ground. If sadness is not a disease that can be caught bye others then why do I have this overwhelming feeling of sadness over me. This time her facial expressions take the stage of movement. The wrinkles on her face are not all caused bye old age the creation comes from a pain. The expressions of her face show this pain to be freshly new like today she was told from a person that the worst has been presumed to have happened to the person she is waiting for. She sits there and I see her lips curl waiting to burst in a cry of I never got to say goodbye. She begins to cry the tears flow threw the wrinkles on her face as if a canal was built just for the sadness of tears.

Her posture positions itself to a point where all hope has been lost. Her posture cannot believe what has happened. Her posture is devasted bye the news she has been given. Her posture is to say its meloncahley sounds like as if it was a good word. Her posture of sadness does not allow her to do anything else even with the sight of people actually walking around us which is a rare occasion. Her eyes or actions do not make a move. Once again I cannot sleep another saying has came into my mind ignorance might be bliss after all if I ignored her maybe this sadness will go away from me. It should be easy to go back to my old routine. I found it easy to act as if she wasnt even there why cant I do it once again. Then I wondered do I really want to be blissfully ignorant of this woman's plight. Soon I was hit with more sadness ashamed of myself for wanting to leave her to her pain alone yet I did not know what to do I thought maybe if I shared in her pain that the pain would be less on her.

The next day I was waiting to receive her pain but I was surprised to see that her posture has changed. She looked vibrant today like if she refused to believe the news she was given. Her posture showed a renewal of hope. You can see her hope glow threw out her body. The wrinkles in her face where still there but not as many her faced showed the reslience of not giving up. Her lips showed hope of one day being able to give a kiss to the person she is waiting for. Once again her eyes close this time she looks like shes breathing something in as if she just received flowers from the person she is waiting for she smiles then I see her lips say the type of flower my favorite. She says thank you. Her eyes open but she is not sad to know it was all a daydream. Her eyes give off this positive look of that is what is going to happen when she sees the person shes waiting for. I have never seen hope in a bottle before but today she radiates in it. Once again she does not pay attention of what is going on around her this time though its because shes too busy hoping.

Night comes I am allowed to sleep on this night happy knowing that Miss has hope. Today has been a fireworks of anticipation her movements are jittery today she reacts to things that are not even there. Today she looks like she has been sparked with what I do not know but her face shows me that she was given a sign during my sleep that the person she is waiting for will come today. She reassures me with a sturdy look that she is a realistic person things which are set in motion are not all signs so for her to say she has been given a sign she must have really received a sign. I soon see a letter in her hand she holds onto this letter tight. I learn about the letter threw her anxiousness. She was cleaning the closet in her bedroom then all of the sudden a box of letters she kept that the person wrote to her while he was gone fell she was upset she dropped it yet she saw one that stood out from all the others the main subject of the letter was about how the person missed her so and couldnt wait for the day that they will be reunited. That is far as I will go because I cannot write as elegant as the person writing about everything there going to do when there back together.

Today of all days I was hoping the person would show up today but as I left she was still on pins and needles. No sign of the person. As I walked to the place I felt a sadness enter. There she was once again sitting there. If hope can be bottled so can sadness. Where do I start to describe her sadness it is an abyess that has no end to the naked eye. For the first time I leave before even eating my lunch. I feel that she wants to be alone with her sadness so I obey to her wishes.

The following day I appeared at the spot at first my mind told me not to go but my heart told me that I needed to go. I sat down I only glanced at her on my way I also did this while I was sitting because I did not want to see her sad anymore. I had to really look and what I saw gave me a reaction I was stunned to see she was once again back to her vibrant self of before. She was waiting for that person I could tell I soon began to fawn thinking that she will be disappointed once more yet her confidence told me not to fawn that today will be the day the person she is waiting for will show up. I wondered why she was so confident on today. Her confidence let me in on her secret. Last night she was sleeping when she had this dream. The person came to her in this dream and had told her that he knows shes been waiting for him. The person told her no more disappointments they will be together tomorrow. I had wondered how can she put so much confidence in a dream. Her confidence told me because the dream felt so real. The day came and the day went along with disappointment.

I have no idea how she had survive this long. The sadness would have swept down on me and took me along time ago. Another day the sadness was apparent on her. This time worse than I have ever seen. I saw her soul it was barely alive as if yesterday took all the energy from it. Her body was not doing any better she looked like she was already dead. The hope that was once there was gone not even a glimmer of it. She was still amongst the living but it was like she wasnt. It seemed like her state of mind had finally went to the fact that she will never see that person ever again. Everything that was worth living for has been taken from her and she was ready to be taken as well. There is no life without him is what she tells me threw her soul.

As I left I thought that would be the last time I see her but everyday she was still there beared with the fact that she knows yet still hoping against hope that the person she is waiting for will return to her. Patience like that is a fantasy in the world we live in today. Busy is the norm. we rush about our business we have no time for anything to where we make chit chat and we feel like we just had a heart felt conversation. Time is an essence that we cannot waste on waiting. She waits and waits if time had finally run out of its numbers she will still wait. It is a love so strong that she will not leave without. So she waits.

I can no longer sit in silence so I walk up to her as soon as I'm about to speak she says you have finally returned to me. I'm about to tell her she has me mistaken but she doesnt allow me to speak she says you have kept your promise of returning and I have kept my promise to wait for you. You have made me the happiest person on this day. All of the sudden she transforms into this young beautiful woman my attention on how stunning she was followed with her clothing she was wearing a dress that look like from the civil war era. Then she began to disappear like pedals coming off a flower. She blew me a kiss and said goodbye. Love is like the wind always flowing threw the centuries it is everlasting).

THE END