h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They were in their fifties and on a rare occasion they received an acquaintance of theirs.
Exactly eight o'clock the bell rang and the visitor was welcomed as one did in the upper middle class in Holland,when a doctor visits a lawyer and his wife. Children were sent outside or upstairs. It is 1955.

There didn't develop a real conversation more than the usual general civilities and after their first cup of coffee the lawyer suddenly sat up more straightly and slided to the edge of his chair by which he fínally could ask his passionate question which hatched his mind and soul fo so long but could not find thé definite answer. He looked the doctor straight in his eyes and said out of the blue; "Is it really possible to kill someone by maintaining silent?"

The visitor kept silent for a while because of total confusion. Because he wasn't prepared for such a morbid question at such an occasion. But hé was the doctor, hé had to know and there was no way out by ignoring such a dominant question.
And after a silence of five long seconds he replied ;"It is indeed possible to kill someone by maintaining silent for a long, long time", as if he was giving an anatomic lesson.

It appeared to be a social lesson.
From that moment on the lawyer didn't speak óne word to his wife. Not in the days and weeks after. Neither in the months that followed and not even in the handfull of yéars that life gave him.
Untill he himself became exhausted and concluded that this prescription hadn't done its work.The promise remained unfullfilled.

My father and mother had to go on, asif they were alive.
Till finally death came and took them both in his arms.


Alfredo, Amsterdam.

two things:
(1) just like your 1984 story, this one made little sense to me. no hard feelings.
(2) i dont think you can KILL someone by not talking to them, but you can make tham very, very sad. an acquaitance of mine stopped talking to me last friday (for reasons i prefer not to ponder upon). i then realized i was becoming really, really sad. only by tuesday i realized why that was. now im fine again because (1) i have no personal attachement to him and (2) there are lots of other ppl who ARE talking to me. just a comment, thats all.

You can make them feel as if they might aswell be dead to the person not talking to them, but yeah, I agree. You can't kill someone with silence.


KizerKaz