chaos

Short story depicting an intense argument regarding an issue affecting the whole family.

It initiated with meager mumbles of conversation that led to a quicker and boisterous debate. The animosity in the room was intense; it had a stench of iron rich metal like blood. The scent was so vivid and compelling it had a taste. The aroma tasted like the saltiness of their sweat. The angry sweat trickled down their necks, while they rapidly waved their loaded fingers at the others. They would slam both hands against the thick wooden table that created an earthquake across it. The table rippled like when a megalith would be thrown in a pond, which caused the surrounding bibelot to lift into the air. The stress and impatience bounced around the room. They sneered and growled with frustration. The worst was the eyes; which beamed radiantly like burning magnesium and shot lasers through the heart. They sucked the air and purpose out, and everything else left in a person. All the negative energy felt like an Inland Taipan snake slither down the throat, releasing all its venom on the way down. It was guilt, anger, and sorrow all at the same time that cascaded in like a raging flood.

 

The andante in the background was inaudible. The verbal diatribe was immense and vitriolic.  They dismissed from their mind and all their thoughts obliterated. They debated so tremendously that they forgot what they were arguing about in the first place and were just yelling now. Their throats were dry and with every release of words came with immense pain. They were not only deceiving and lying to each other but to themselves, like a mirror looking at a mirror. They tried to eat the air and zealed to catch more of it. Their voices seemed faded but ear piercing. The noise thrashed through the eardrums with no mercy causing an instant headache. It wasn’t the loudness of the voice which hurt it was the tone in their voice that hurt. The words felt like daggers going in the ears. The pitch was desperate and hysterical which tore through the soul so effortlessly like a saw ripping through just one piece of paper.

 

Grandpa stood up with a crack of his foot that split the lithosphere in half. He yelled out vociferously with an ear-splintering scream that made the ear feel like an iron axe smacking into a thin wooden shield.

 

Grandma stood up with streaks of tears running down her face that rolled down across her cheeks. As she stood her esclavage rattled violently. She was well respected for many reasons, as for one is that she spoke in breviloquence and mercurial and that she was lambkin. Her name was dynamic but whispered. It has five letters and two syllables. The name's first letter was epistle and many appear on suspender towers of a bridge. When pronouncing its first letter, came a deep exhale that took the air out from the lungs. The name means multiple reasons in different cultures. In America it means something that opposes evil and has more of it in the daytime. The sun creates it but the moon doesn’t. In Greek it means something that can be the beginning or can be the end. It is destructive as life and healing as death. It loves to dance but hates to swim. The name also can mean something that reflects and shines uttermost vibrant in the darkest nights. It has unyielding chiaroscuro and is the shadows light. It is bipolar and has multiple faces but is always the same. In Greek mythology the name is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, whose kidnapping by Paris was the cause of the Trojan War. The name speaks to the heart and pleases the soul. When spoken out loud it is delicately rolled off the tongue in a relaxing manner. The name is ancient and many famous people share this name. It is delicate like a butterfly's wing that can be crushed with even the slightest movement of the human’s fingertips. The name is Helen.

 

The tears zigzagged down her bridle face as termites dig through wood. As the tears dropped to the ground it left engraved trails on her limp cheeks. As if she was a stone sculpture the tears left a swerve intaglio on her face. Silence flooded the room when everybody surveyed her face. She whimpered, “ Look at you fools, all yelling at each other to get your anger out. Debating at each other like a bunch of politicians isn’t going to heal her. Helen wept, Helen Said more calmly now. Boys or men it doesn’t matter, they're about to lose their mother.”