Beginnings - An Empty Window

Life faded to black for Mr. Harold T. Moffit. Looking up at the peeling, water stained ceiling of his rented rats-nest apartment, he felt the choked and oppressing clutter of folders, papers, filing cabinets and unfulfilled dreams scattered all around him as he lay there on his back, not moving from where he landed after tripping and falling over his own feet. He hadn’t bothered to catch himself as he fell and smacked the dirty wood floor of the apartment bedroom with his forehead.

A deafening silence rang in Moffit’s ears, pounding in his brain, thrusting the last ounce of sanity screaming from his lips. Moffit watched the sun rise and fall on the white textureless wall opposite his small smudged and cracked bedroom window, which sat partially open, inviting the night, the darkness and all of its evils to enter and absorb.

Moffit stared blankly at the open window, willing it to close, to shut him in, to protect him from the world. But even the window taunted him, defied him and sat silently open.

Moffit’s mind slowly, painfully began to wander; meandering back and forth through memories of happiness’s long lost and forgotten. Children in tiny white tennis shoes played in the sand, slipping down slides into his waiting arms. He held them close, kissing their cheeks and foreheads, watching them play and learn. A woman of breathtaking beauty smiled just for him. Her touch on his arm always sent chills. Her soft silky voice soothed his tired soul.

All gone, reality splashed ice water in Moffit’s face. His mind snapped back into fuzzy focus, a dreary, blurry stark white room. A cold breeze was blowing through the open window. There was a realization of warm wet tears, dripping from the sides of his head to his ears, where they remained trapped in the outer folds, tiny pools of heartache. Moffit released a sigh, soft and long. His body relaxed, fingers loose and limp. A crumpled yellow telegram slipped from his fingers to the floor where it laid, words to the ceiling.

It read, “….Dear Mr. Moffit, We regret to inform you that there has been an accident. Tragically, your wife and children have been killed. We send our condolences and our regret for having informed you in this manner but as you have no phone ………….”