The Visitor

 

Something changed when the clock stopped.  The old lady could feel it.  Something was very different.   All the normal house noises had stopped completely.  Nothing was creaking, none of the appliances were humming, even the kitchen faucet stopped dripping.  Suddenly she felt scared, like nothing good was about to happen.

Nagles, her feline companion, sat up and just stared at the front door, like she was expecting someone to come through it at any moment.  They both stayed frozen, waiting for what, they didn’t know.   Through the dining room window she could see the roofers still hammering away on her neighbor’s new roof.  “Nothing outside has stopped.” She said aloud to Nagles.  The cat still didn’t move.  Then the sound of the hammering stopped.  She looked back out and could see the workers still busy, but none of the sound was getting into the house.  “What’s going on?” she asked the cat, but the cats focus remained on the front door.

“Are you trying to get me to open that door?” she said to the cat, but now her voice had no sound.  She yelled, but again without sound.  Was it her, she wondered.  Had her ears stopped working?  She pushed a book from the table and it hit the floor without so much as a thud, but she also noticed Nagles didn’t hear it either.  The cat didn’t flinch.  “What’s happening?” she screamed, but again - into the silence. 

Maybe someone is knocking on the door, how would I know?  Maybe my phone is ringing.  She didn't want to, but she walked slowly to the front door and cautiously opened it. There was nobody there.  The breeze hit her face and once again she could hear the workers on her neighbor's roof hammering.  She heard a distant car horn and she could hear the birds in the front tree.  "It's not me." she said aloud, and she could hear her voice.  "It isn't me." she said much louder, to no one in particular.  She turned and looked back at her cat sitting there.  Now, however, the cat was staring at the clock that had stopped.

"Is it the clock that's doing it?" she asked her cat, almost afraid to step back inside, but she did, pulling the door closed behind her.  "What kind of power can stop sound?" she questioned, but again her voice had no sound.  She walked slowly to the grandfather clock and just stood looking at it for a second.  Slowly she opened the glass door on the front of the clock.  She took the key from the inside wall and put it into the slot and started to wind it.  Several times around, she cranked the key and as she did, slowly she began to hear the ticks returning.  The clock was coming back to life, just as the sounds around her were once again making noise.  She could hear the refrigerator humming, and behind her, the faucet dripping.  Then the noise from the outside hammering returned.

"I don't understand any of this." she said to Nagles, who now was over sniffing at the book she had pushed off the table. 

to be continued