Ripples of Silence

By Anna Quadrada

We live in a world dominated by fear. As conscious, responsible citizens, we dutifully switch on our TVs every evening to follow the news and get to know what happened. However, no matter what, the summary of the day is always a grim list of disasters that restlessly shape our inner understanding of the world. Consequently, the future of humankind seems bleak, and the meaning of our stressed lives pointless. But what if, in the middle of this media-driven society, one of the most famous and acclaimed news presenters decides to stop talking? Would you understand his decision, or would you be outraged by it? Would you want to know why he stopped talking, or would you rather think hes crazy?

Ripples of Silence is a fast-paced psychological thriller that will take the reader through a hypothetical scenario where the silence of a prominent news presenter boldly questions our societys most hidden assumptions and beliefs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jun 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452573380

Anna Quadrada

ANNA QUADRADA was born in Barcelona in 1975. Before starting her writing career, Anna worked as an architect for several years in different European countries. Currently, she lives outside Barcelona and is combining her writing with other artistic work. Ripples of Silence is her first novel.

Book preview

Introduction

Once again when Leah woke up that morning, her husband’s side of the bed was still untouched. Mark had spent several sleepless nights lately, nervously roaming up and down the sitting room, smoking cigarettes in the corner, and staring seriously out of the window for hours, lost in thought. Yet despite the long nights and the mysterious preoccupations, at eight o’clock he was always perfectly shaved, impeccably dressed in his suit, and ready to go out. However, that day something was different. It was already half past eight, and his suit was still hanging in the wardrobe, his shoes were scattered around the bedroom, and his mobile was switched off on the bedside table. Even Leah, who by now was already quite used to her husband’s eccentricities, thought something out of the ordinary was going on. Worried, she quickly put on her dressing gown and rushed out of the room.

Everywhere was dark and quiet. The first rays of the morning sun, struggling to get in through the heavy living room curtains, were casting sharp shadows on the furniture, already disfigured by the haze of what seemed like a hundred cigarettes smoked. A cold chill went down Leah’s spine. She could sense trouble approaching. Anxious to air out the dense atmosphere and let the morning light dissipate her fears, she drew back the curtains and realised her husband was still there, sitting in the couch, smoking in silence, apparently relaxed.

Momentarily relieved from her worries, she moved silently towards him and softly caressed his neck. After all, maybe he was just feeling a bit sick and had decided to rest at home for the day. Mark unwound slightly at her touch, held her hand gently, and, with eyes fixed on the ground, finished his cigarette. He seemed exhausted, more exhausted than she had ever seen him before. Concerned, Leah gripped his chin and made him look at her. He had deep grey shadows beneath his eyes, his lips were dry and cracked from all the smoking, his hair was messy, and his stubble completed an exasperatingly rough look. Still, even though his gentle blue eyes shivered with tiredness and exhaustion, somehow Leah realised that the anxious look that had been marring his expression those last days had finally vanished. In its place was the calm and reassured face of a man who had taken a decision.

She didn’t know what had been tormenting her husband lately. He had always been very reserved, and over the years she had learnt how to leave him space whenever he needed it. However, this time his struggle seemed to be of a dimension she had not seen before, and it had lasted more than any other crisis he had ever been through. That’s why she couldn’t be happier it was over. So, smiling, Leah tried to liven up the situation.

You look awful, baby!

Mark breathed deeply and hopelessly tried to smile back, but his weary features didn’t seem able to follow his intentions. Instead, he squeezed her hand firmly and stared at her with distress. He didn’t say a word or make a sound, but with that frightening look he seemed to want to tell her something of extreme importance. Their eyes talked frantically for a moment, radiating endless thoughts and unspoken emotions, but Leah failed to understand what her husband was trying to tell her. She could see he was worried; she could see the unusual distraught intensity in his eyes, but she just couldn’t grasp its concealed meaning.

What is it, Mark? Why don’t you just tell me what’s happening?

Mark frowned, twisted his lips in pain, and then looked away. A few minutes passed. The morning sky had already filled the room with light, but nothing seemed to be any brighter. Leah was frightened. She was afraid of the meaning of her husband’s look, afraid of the lack of words, afraid of that excruciating hush. She wanted to ask a million questions, but none seemed significant enough. Still, someone had to speak again, ask a question, say something, anything to break that nerve-racking silence that was keeping them apart.

Honey, you can speak to me. Leah paused and held both his hands warmly. I’m here for you.

Mark gulped. His features turned graver, and he tightened his grip on her. Leah was waiting for an explanation, but Mark didn’t even seem to be looking for words to tell her what was happening. She opened her lips to question him again, but Mark swiftly stopped her from uttering a word. He gently put his hand on her mouth, tightened his grasp, and fixed his eyes on hers intensely. Leah was at a complete loss, petrified. What was Mark trying to do? Why wasn’t he talking to her? Why wasn’t he speaking?

Suddenly, as if she’d been struck by lightning, an uncontrollable storm of thoughts and feelings started to fill Leah’s mind. They were all without matter, all unspoken and assumed, but they were all more real than ever. Real, and yet too bold to face, too wild to accept, and too unreasonable to believe! Incredulous, Leah stood up with a sigh. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t just have decided something like that! It was crazy! Absurd! Desperately, she kept looking for a sign of denial in Mark’s expression, but, knowing that she had at last understood, his face remained still, resolute, and more confident than ever. Finally, realizing the truth of the situation and overwhelmed by the power and absurdity of his decision, by its worthiness and its meaninglessness, by its problems and by all its implications, Leah muttered the forbidden reality in a desperate attempt to make it believable to herself.

Jesus, Mark … silence?

So that night it was Leah who could not sleep. For two whole hours she had been turning side to side on their bed, without closing her eyes for a single second. Silence … was that really an option? Why would anyone want to stop talking? Why would Mark want to stop talking? He, out of all people! Leah turned and looked at her husband’s back. He was fast asleep, breathing slowly, recovering from the previous restless nights. Despite the strength of his body, that night he appeared to her as vulnerable and weak as a little child. When she married him she knew he wasn’t an ordinary man; she knew he was capable of the most bizarre things, and still she had married him. So she should have been prepared. She should have expected him to react uncommonly to any circumstance. The problem was that she hadn’t even realised there was such a circumstance to face. Despite all the sleepless nights and all the thinking Mark seemed to have been doing lately, she had failed to see the gravity of the situation he was going through. He didn’t openly speak about his worries, and since he was going to work and living his usual life undisturbed, Leah had naively assumed the problem wouldn’t have such dramatic consequences.

Nervously, Leah turned and covered herself with the sheet. She should have tried to speak to him before, because now … what was she supposed to do now? How was she supposed to help him if she didn’t even know what was causing his silence? Bizarre as it looked, nonsensical as it seemed, she knew that if she really loved him, she had no other option than to accept his decision, overcome the absurd, and make an effort to understand the incomprehensible.

But for how long? How long was this vow of silence going to last? And how was she supposed to live like that, next to someone who wouldn’t say a word and wasn’t telling her why he wouldn’t? Leah was confused and scared. She was uncertain of the future that awaited them. But worse than anything, she was unsure of her ability to face it. Probably she would just need to take it easy, try to grasp her husband’s thoughts again, and go on living her own life, accepting that for some strange reason, in this weird world, Mark had decided it wasn’t worth speaking anymore.

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One

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ROGER WAS IN a particularly good mood. It was a bright sunny afternoon, and everything looked fabulous. He entered the office with a wide cheerful smile, surprising everyone he passed. A smile wasn’t exactly what they were used to getting from Roger! However, compared to a few months ago, things were now going splendidly, and it just showed on his face.

Good afternoon, everyone!

Hi, Roger. Pete approached him with the news summary for the evening. Here’s the brief. Gayle is reading today.

Gayle? And where’s Mark?

Pete shrugged his shoulders and swiftly moved away to the other side of the studio to finish off his final preparations before going on air. Roger was surprised. Since Mark had started presenting the evening news, he hadn’t failed to appear a single day. Not even that time when, after a major indisposition, he had such deep grey shadows under his eyes that the make-up girls gave up trying to hide them. Something serious must have happened to him to make him miss work, and Roger was concerned.

Mark’s co-presenter was near the cameras, re-reading the summary of the news. Assuming she would know something about his absence, Roger approached her.

Hi, Gayle, do you know what’s happened to Mark?

No. Gayle put down her papers and looked at Roger in concern. We’ve been phoning him the whole afternoon, but we haven’t got through. We’ve called him at home and on his mobile but he just doesn’t answer. We don’t know what else to do!

I see … Roger frowned, preoccupied. Okay, don’t worry, Gayle. Leave it to me.

Gayle nodded in relief. Knowing that Roger, her boss and the head of the news department, was taking personal care of it allowed her to relax a bit. She and Mark were the primetime news presenters, and since he had started reading the news, their audience share had risen spectacularly. Mark’s charisma and personality attracted people, and Gayle, who was just at the beginning of her journalistic career, found it an honour to be his co-presenter. However, that afternoon had been a nerve-cracking nightmare. Not knowing what happened to Mark and not being able to contact him had deeply unsettled her. She cringed to think that something bad could have happened to him.

Despite his cool front, Roger was also very anxious. This wasn’t the way he would have expected Mark to do things. He knew him from university where for a short but intense while they had been friends, and he trusted him. Mark was a reliable person and one of the most talented journalists he had ever met. In fact, it was he who had put through Mark’s résumé when, six months earlier, the evening news presenter position became vacant.

After twenty years reading the channel news, their former news presenter had unexpectedly shifted to the competition, leaving everyone shocked. This guy had thousands of faithful followers who would only watch the news if he presented it, so soon after he left the audience share dropped precipitously. But that wasn’t the worst. The absence of a clear explanation for his decision left room for so much gossip that the channel’s reputation was soon jeopardized. Something needed to be done quickly, and a substitute was urgently required. But of course it couldn’t just be anyone; too much was at stake. During the following weeks, names had been rife in the corridors. CVs were exchanged in the offices and lists were made and unmade whilst the phones rang non-stop throughout the day. The channel’s cafeteria was bustling with people betting on who was going to finally be elected saviour.

Since at that time Roger was the executive news producer, he had spent hours going through résumés, reading newspapers in search of promising journalistic work, phoning old colleagues, and researching on the internet. But no one seemed good enough, interesting enough, or likeable enough. The situation was getting more desperate by the minute, and all odds seemed to be stacked against them.

Guys, we’re running out of time! Now the other channels are even making fun of us because we seem incapable of replacing a news presenter! We need to sort this out, quickly! Tom, Roger’s direct boss and head of the journalism department, emphasized the gravity of the situation. Surely there must be someone we can hire? Come on, Roger, it’s your call. You must have received a thousand résumés!

Yes, Tom, but there’s no one good enough …

What do you mean, there’s no one good enough? How many journalists are there in this country? Have your pick, man! Take a risk! The longer you take to decide, the worse our situation will be!

But Tom, you know how crucial this decision is. If we make the wrong choice, it could ruin our reputation forever!

"Roger, we won’t have any reputation to preserve if you don’t find someone now!"

That day, driven by Tom’s urgency, Roger decided to shut himself in his office. No calls, he told his secretary. He needed to be absolutely alone to go through the remaining options – if there were any. With a warm cup of coffee in his hands, he let himself fall heavily into his chair. Where else could he look for that person? Had he really considered all the journalists he knew or had heard about?

He had considered everyone who could possibly match the criteria they were looking for – everyone, that is, except for those who lived permanently abroad. Usually these were young journalists who were looking for adventures and craving to see the world. Or they were people like his old classmate Mark. Mark had been abroad since he finished his degree and seemed to have no intention of ever coming back. Even though, if he did come back … Roger stopped breathing for a second. If Mark did have the slightest intention of coming back, he would be the one they were looking for without any shadow of doubt!

Mark had everything they wanted. He was young but not too young, good looking but not conceited, popular but not tiresome. He was an independent guy who had sometimes worked for them as a correspondent abroad, and he was well-known and appreciated by everyone. Throughout his journalistic career Mark had been a correspondent in many different places, and his excellent work was recognised internationally. His opinions, always pungent and uncompromised, were especially appreciated by audiences, who always felt they were being told a secret other journalists weren’t brave enough to tell. This particular relationship with the viewers was what made Mark such a unique bet for the post. Roger was convinced that, if they could persuade him to come back to the country and present the channel’s evening news, they would definitely recover their prestige. And indeed they had done so.

To their great surprise, a few days after they had sent Mark the job offer, an e-mail of acceptance arrived. It seemed that Mark had been planning to come back to the country, and the job offer was very well timed. Since he had already made his preparations for moving, Mark was able to join their team very quickly, and as soon as he started reading the news, audience share picked up immediately. The channel recovered its lost reputation, and many new viewers were reported to have chosen them as their preferred TV channel. Mark’s arrival had been a blessing for all of them. His charisma, personality, and sense of humour not only bewitched the audiences, but also brightened the atmosphere at work. Tom had been so impressed with Mark’s results at all levels that he even promoted Roger to head of the news division, a post he thought he deserved for having had the provident idea of calling him in.

But now Roger was remembering all of this with apprehension, whilst impatiently trying to get hold of Mark. He had