Article Assignment #2

It was a January day, a slight chill in the air and an uncomfortable stillness in what is usually a city filled with sirens, cries, and explosions. In this city silence is more terrible than a blast which kills a million, because knowing something will come is worse. Anticipating pain and having time to remember those already lost is more frightening than loosing.

The only things which strike the silence are the tears of mourning parents and the happy chuckles from naïve children, who easily forget the pain. Lines of escorted pupils travel to school with a slight skip in their step, for there are no loud noises to eat at their spirit. As the children file into the establishment, teachers scope out the scene for possible attackers, predators looking to prey on the innocent and cripple the wise. Yet, from what they could see the coast was clear, even though the feeling in their gut claimed otherwise.

Final bells rang and doors were shut. Students slowly go to class holding each word they have spoken to their friends like candy on their tongues before the teacher snatches it away and throws the sticky sugar in the bin. The young have not yet realized the cloud which hangs over their head. They don’t notice the film over their eyes or the wax in their ears, which prohibits them from seeing the storm brewing and from hearing the roll of thunder which warns them of future danger.

Yet, the staff aware of how dangerous silence is, eye each other in the hall mutually recognizing each others uncomfort. The feeling spreads among them like a yawn, which signals the sleep to come.

As chalked is picked up and desks are slumped into, feelings are confirmed. It starts with the rev of an engine and the screech of rubber on worn breaks. A man crazed with dangerous faith and false morals blindly runs into his countries future at full speed, with the full intention to alter it. The metal crinkles as the bricks crack and the car bursts red and orange executioners. Killing a mama’s boy, a daddy’s girl, the possible future president, and the mother of a new born baby, lost. A mother weeps, a father drinks, a baby is sold, and a country has passed the point of no return. It knows that its savior’s life was slowly eaten and their flesh charred by the overwhelming stupidity of-one. One-who destroyed a nation.