stories

the hum
The city has a tune all it’s own. The hustle
and bustle interspersed with raging sirens
and couples shouting at 2 am. Anyone
who has lived in this city long enough can
tell you it’s this kind of background noise
that eventually becomes integral to your
definition of silence. You don’t notice the
train passing by your bedroom window or
the sound of construction thundering on a
Saturday morning. You don’t notice, until
they vanish. Then suddenly your ears are
screaming for an escape from the quietude.
You never imagined that the sound of
nothingness could make you want to hide
in a corner and cover your ears. Because
you’re not accustomed to the earth’s hum.
So thought Nicky as he recounted the
moments that had left him standing at the
top of the Empire State Building.
Having lived all his life between the avenues
of the city that never sleeps, Nicky had
never heard the hum. But on one particular
Tuesday afternoon, Nicky woke up with a
faint sense that something was wrong. As
he stumbled out of his bedroom, letting the
stench of old Chinese food waft into living
room, he felt a tragic sense of loneliness.
Stammering onto the street he realized
everyone was gone. His roommate, his girl,
the dude he exchanged nods with at the
coffee shop. Probably even that annoying
guy Todd at work. They were all gone.
After the initial panic subsided, Nicky took
to roaming the deserted streets of a once
thriving metropolis looking for someone.
Literally anyone. Now, even that annoying
guy Todd would have been a welcome
companion. Life all alone was a hard pill to
swallow. Eventually though, he had gotten
used to it.
But it wasn’t a life of solitude that had
bothered Nicky most. It was the hum. Each
day that passed, it grew louder. A distant
ringing that was a drill in his eardrums trying