The Quiet One

I’ve heard that all my life… “oh, yes. Her. She’s the quiet one.” It was always said with a pat on the head and a smile. The thing was, the smile sometimes had something else behind it. Sometimes people got belligerent about my lack of senseless chatter.

That struck me as weird when I was young, but I get it now. When you stop talking — stop filling up the space around you with noise and activity like a bubble that keeps others out — you notice things. You notice when the emperor has no clothes, when the homeless man betrays his intelligence with a secret smile, when the “expert” isn’t really all that sure of what he’s talking about.

I’ve learned to deal with the label. I can ignore the fear and belligerence now. It’s a wonderfully entertaining world — much too fun to push away with noise.