A World Without Music
Wide awake, he swayed slowly to the rhythm that coursed
through his dream. He stood in his corner of the ward alone, as always, while
the radio played. A vibrant beat drummed deep inside him. He felt a part of the
music that no one else seemed to sense. He uttered a vague melody without
meaning, in a voice that knew no words.
He had been born deaf and mute. As far as anyone knew he had
never heard any sounds at all. What voice he did have was a mixture of grunts
and gargles. When people spoke to him he felt nothing, and heard less. He never
spoke in all the years he lived in the home. All he could feel was music.
When he first arrived, he was a difficult patient to deal
with. He'd been placed there when his family had decided he was too much to
care for at home. Soon, the staff began to notice a change whenever they played
music in the background. Once the music began he would find his way to his
corner and stand entranced as the strains washed over him.
At times, he would stir and break into what could loosely be
called a dance that only he knew. Hopping about in a frenzy of gyrations or
gracefully gliding across the floor. In the quiet hours of the night, as the
patients lay in their beds, his voice took on a soft crooning. The
erratic mutterings of the day slowed. His cries became calls. His
wails became whispers. For many patients, it was the lullaby that helped them
sleep.
The staff discovered that whenever a musical instrument was
played he would turn and make his way closer to it; even when he couldn’t see
where it was. It was as though it’s very presence, the vibrations it made,
reached out and connected to him somehow.
He could sense the passion or excitement in the song. His
body quivered or swooned in time in a magical and mysterious connection that no
one else seemed to experience. He didn’t move to the music. It was the music
that moved him. For most people, music was something they heard. For him, music
was something he could feel. It wasn’t heard with his ears, but felt in his
soul.
In a world without music, he was surrounded by song.
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