Geplaatst: 13-02-06 21:59 
Silence
Silence. Britt knocked on the door of number 53B, again- but nobody came to open it. She sighed and was about to turn around and walk back to her car, when the door next to 53B opened. An older woman looked at her. “Good afternoon. Can I ask you what you’re doing here? I haven’t seen you around before..” It almost sounded accusing, and Britt waited a few seconds before she answered. What was she doing here, what was she thinking? She wasn’t even sure if the person she was looking for still lived here. “I’m looking for Sara, I’m her sister Britt. For as far as I remember, Sara lives here. At least, she lived here 7 years ago, so I thought-“ The older woman interrupted Britt. “You’re her sister, you say? I’ve never seen you here before. I’ve never seen anyone of her family here before..” She sighed, and looked at Britt with a strange look. Britt couldn’t place it, but didn’t really worry about it. “Well.. to be honest, we didn’t really keep in touch since she moved to Manchester. Nobody of our family did that, she went here to get rid of us- we all were noisy and annoying, according to Sara. She came here to find her rest.” The older woman nodded. “I see. Well, I think she had all the opportunity to find her rest here. There aren’t much people of her age in this building- mostly elderlies. Like me.” She grinned. “Ah well, if she doesn’t open the door, she’s probably asleep. She never really comes outside- she mostly orders the things she needs online, and wait for them to be delivered. But if you want, I can give you the spare key from her apartment. You can wait downstairs in her apartment if you want, she wouldn’t mind at all I think.” Britt wasn’t too sure about that, actually. The older woman clearly didn’t understand what was going on between Sara and her family. But she’d accept the offer; she came here to talk to Sara, and that would be what she was going to do. “That’d be great, ms..” “Smith. Johannah Smith.” She smiled. “If you wait here for a moment, I’ll get you the key.” Britt nodded thankfully, and ms. Smith returned with the key a few minutes later. “Here’s the key, the living room is on your right hand when you enter the apartment. You can wait over there, I think it’s alright with Sara if you take something to drink out of her fridge. The kitchen isn’t very hard to find. When you enter the corridor and you walk straight forward you’ll be there.” Britt wasn’t too sure if Sara would be alright with sharing any of her food or drinks with her sister, but she didn’t really care. “Thank you, ms. Smith!” Ms. Smith smiled, wished Britt a good day and headed off to the elevator.
Britt entered her sister’s apartment as quietly as she could, because she didn’t want to wake Sara. She swept her feet on the door mat and closed the door behind her. Silence. She took off her jacket and hung it over her arm, looking for a place to leave it. As she walked through the corridor she saw there were only two other jackets which were just lying on the floor, next to the stairs. She sighed; her sister had always been this messy. She saw no other place to leave her jacket, so she just put it down next to the other two. She did it quietly, so she wouldn’t wake her sister. Where would she sleep? In the living room, or in the bedroom? It would be totally Sara to fall asleep on the couch.. Britt knocked on the door of the living room before she entered. She expected to see Sara there, sleeping on the couch. But as she entered the living room, she still didn’t see anyone there. ‘Sara, hello? Are you there?’ Nobody answered. Britt held her breath for a moment, to find out if she could hear someone breathing.. but she didn’t hear a thing. Not any sound at all. She felt very uncomfortable as she walked on through the room. It was one big mess, dust lying everywhere. And the air.. it smelled stuffy, sweltering. Like nobody had been there for weeks, or maybe even months. Britt sighed. This was one of the reasons that her parents broke the contact with Sara. It wouldn’t have been such a big problem if Sara was just messy, but this girl was such a frump that she never ever cleaned up anything. When they still lived together in one house with their parents, Sara always used to leave her stuff everywhere around the house. If she ate something she’d never clean up her plate or cutlery, she just left it on the dinner table hoping that someone else would clean it up for her. And, seeing this all, Britt thought that Sara hadn’t really changed at this point, since then. She decided to take a quick look into the closet, which was standing in between the TV and the pile of garbage, to see if she could find out anything about the way her sister lived her life. The last time she spoke to her sister was about.. 2 years ago? Britt tried to remember it, but she just couldn’t. All she knew was that Sara broke the contact with her and with her parents at the same time, and that must have been around 2002 or 2003.. So that would make 2 or maybe even 3 years without talking to her sister, she figured. That was quite a long time.. and she knew Sara missed her. Sara couldn’t live without her family, she just couldn’t. When she told her parents and her sister that she wanted to go on without them, she had made a mistake. Britt knew this, because a few weeks ago she received a message from Sara on her voice-mail. Sara asked if Britt could come over to her place, to discuss things. She admitted she made a mistake by telling her whole family that she never wanted to see them again. She admitted she was wrong, and she needed Britt again- that’s what she said. Sara would like to get in touch with Britt again and to be there for Britt when there was any need to. That was the last thing Britt heard of her, and now she was here to discuss things with Sara, as she wanted. She didn’t call before coming to Sara’s place, she didn’t even try to get back in touch with her- just because she didn’t care. The only reason she was here, was to tell Sara that this time the roles switched. She didn’t want to see or hear Sara again, never. Her life was pretty okay, without Sara. And she just didn’t need anyone to step in there, with the chance to make her life more complicated- she had no need for that. Especially not when that person told her almost the same thing a few years ago. No, Britt wasn’t here to forgive her sister. She was here to tell her the truth.
But as Britt walked further through the living room, searched through closets and drawers to find any information about her sister or about her friends, she started to feel more and more uncomfortable. Sara didn’t seem to have a lot of.. stuff in her house that could be considered as ‘important’. At least, not here, not in her living room. Britt found a lot of old receipts, bills and other things that Britt would name ‘rubbish’. And books.. a lot of books. The most of them were dusty and looked like they hadn’t been read for ages. She also found a pocket diary (2005) which was almost empty from the beginning till the end. Only two appointments with the dentist, a few with the GP and.. a lot of appointments with the psychiatrist. Britt read through whole the pocket diary but couldn’t find anything else about the psychiatrist.. and that worried her. Why had her sister have to go to a psychiatrist? And why weren’t there any appointments with friends in her pocket diary? No parties, no meetings, not even a dinner with colleagues or friends.. Sara always used to write down everything. Every single appointment or meeting with friends or family- if she didn’t write it down she’d just forget about it. And now… Britt couldn’t find any of those things in the pocket diary. But maybe Sara just didn’t had to write things like that down anymore. Did Sara’s memory really get that much better, or was there another explanation for this? An awful thought crossed Britt’s mind: what if her sister didn’t only lose contact with her family, but also with her friends and colleagues? What if she had no friends.. did she even have a job? Britt didn’t think so- there were so many bills in the house, but no money, nowhere.
Britt decided to sit down for a moment, just to get used to this awful idea. Feelings of guilt came over her. What kind of a person was she actually, to just come over here and tell her sister that she didn’t need her anymore... Now that she thought of it, she couldn’t stop feeling more and more guilty. It seemed that her sister didn’t just call Britt because she wondered if Britt needed her. No, it was Sara who needed Britt. And, according to the things Britt found in the apartment, Britt was the only one Sara could possibly turn to.
She sighed as she stood up again, ready to go to Sara’s bedroom. She needed to wake Sara and tell her that she was willing to build up a friendship with Sara again, if that was what Sara wanted. Britt just knew that it was the only right thing for her to do.. Sara needed her, and after all that happened.. she was still her sister. And with that in the back of her mind, she walked out of the living room and walked upstairs, to the bedroom.
But as Britt opened the door of the bedroom, she immediately knew that something was wrong. The air was even more stifling than it was in the living room, and there was some weird kind of atmosphere hanging around there. Britt couldn’t describe it, but it stopped her from walking any further into the room. “Sara? I’m sorry for having to wake you, Sara, but..” Silence. Even when Britt held her breath she didn’t hear anybody breathing. “Sara, please answer me if you’re there? Sara?” Still no answer. Britt turned on the light, she didn’t care if it’d wake Sara.. she just wanted to be sure that everything was alright with her sister. But as she looked into the bed, she didn’t see Sara. She walked towards the bed to see if Sara really wasn’t there.. but she was. Sara’s dead body was lying on the floor, next to the bed. And just before Britt passed out, she screamed.. she screamed for help as loud as she could. Then there was nothing but black. Just black.
There weren’t much people at Sara’s funeral: her neighbours, (who found Sara in her apartment, a few minutes after they heard Britt screaming) her parents (who felt horrible, of course) and of course Britt was there too. She also invited Sara’s old schoolfriends, but only a few showed up at the funeral. The amount of people who showed up at all was countable with two hands, and every single one of them wondered what happened to Sara. Ms. Formby, one of the neighbours, thought it might’ve been food-poisoning, but Ms. Smith held on to her own theory that had to do something with the fact that Sara never came outdoors to breathe some fresh air. Britt could only think of one thing, and that one thing was suicide- but there was nothing to proof it. Not even the slightest sign.
And none of them knew the truth, and none of them ever took the strain to find out. Because it wasn’t the rotten food, and it wasn’t the stale air. It wasn’t suicide, and neither there was something wrong with Sara’s physical health..
It was the silence that killed Sara in the end.
…
Silence.
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Heb hem helaas net al ingeleverd, ik verbeter in ieder geval op de computer die muchmany-fout, dankjewel hoor! 
Straight forward had ik eerst straight ahead, maar een vriendin had er straight forward van gemaakt. 
Gaat lekker zo. 
