Silence

02

He smiles proudly at his results while his friends congratulate him for scoring the highest marks in the paper on gender in his batch.

His mother called him several times to ask for results but he didn't answer even once. He wants to be there in front of her mother to witness the proud shining in her eyes for him. He doesn't want to loose the chance to see that. And why would he? He worked too hard to achieve this result after all.

He bids a quick goodbye to his friends and heads towards his home where his eagerly waiting mother must be pacing back and forth in her room impatiently.

Inhaling a deep breathe, he brings the key of his house near the keyhole of the door but stops abruptly and jumps back a little by being scared of the terrifying scream that came from his neighbour's house.

He takes a step towards that house to check if everything is fine but his feet stop as he hears another scream followed by the sound of the heavy leather belt coming in contact with a fragile body in full force.

He turns back to his house with a sigh, knowing that his neighbour is again abusing his wife. It's not a new thing. Everyone knows that he is jealous of his wife's achievement because he is apparently a looser in everything which is indeed a bizarre reason for doing something like this. 

He just hates hearing these screams everyday. But what can he do? He can't intervene in his neighbour's personal matters.

He inserts the key in the keyhole of the door of his house and clicks it open with the proud smile returning on his face. His happiness doubles and blocks out the continuous screams coming from the house next door as he looks at his mom already standing behind the door.

"Mom! I topped the exam!" he exclaims.

Meanwhile, the knowledge he acquired from the articles he read for his paper chooses to remain silent.