The Midnight Radio Silence

Dear Delyara, The automated timer on my digital radio clicked off at midnight, and the sudden, total silence that dropped over the living room felt like a physical weight landing on my head. For five hours, the sound of strangers talking about sports had been keeping the dark at bay, providing a thin, artificial scaffold for my mind to rest against. The moment the sound died, the walls seemed to contract, and the heavy, gray emptiness of the depression flooded back into the room like water filling a hole. I sat there on the sofa for an hour, entirely unable to move toward the bed, paralyzed by the quiet.