Anata no Koe

1

  Walking through the evening

         Feeling the cold breeze of  the coming winter

            mercilessly crushing the crisp auburn leaves of fall

                I walked alone . . . .

      I walked alone through the cold night, passing through my favorite park. The park where I played since I was a child. It was different back then, there were festive colors around, there were flowers of all kinds growing in elongated rectangular pots and the slides and swings were kept clean. Now, its an abandoned park. The once festive colors were faded and dirty, the flowers no longer bloomed and only it's withered carcass remained. The slides and swings that were once new now coated with rust.

        I entered the park and sat on one of the swings. I slowly pushed myself using my feet as I looked at the sky. It was covered with stars tonight! As I remained mesmerized by the sky I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I felt a chill run down my spine! I turned around and saw a man looked like your typical yakuza! And what's worst is that he had a strange gold right eye. Before he could speak, I ran as fast as I could away from him! 

       I never looked back and just kept running until I reached home and I locked the doors securely. I  slowly slumped down the floor and tried to catch my breath. When I finally calmed down I slowly observed my home. I was alone, well I was used to it now anyway. My name is Hanami, I'm 16 yrs old and I'm deaf and mute. I remembered that I was normal until a huge accident occurred in my school when I was six. I only remembered that a heavy bookshelf fell on me causing a severe head and ear injury which resulted into permanent deafness. Because of this my parents who were ashamed of having a problematic child, moved to America immediately. They send a large amount of money every two weeks to pay for my expenses. 

   I slowly looked up the ceiling as I remembered the happy times I spent with them. Tears fell slowly from my eyes but I did not notice them, I only thought in my mind was " I am useless".