Tan tan tan tan tan tan
The foreign sound echoed in the otherwise quiet house and reached Fae where she lay on her bed, awake but fighting the last vestiges of sleep. Everything was asleep, even the sun that would usher in the new day. She didn't know what time it was, her phone was not close by and she was too lazy to get out of bed and walk over to the table where she charged her phone. She did that so she wouldn't constantly reach for it. Putting a good distance between herself and her devices ensured a good sleep. The only device she slept with was the AirPods currently silent in her ears. She reached in and pulled them out, carefully placing them in their case that sat on her nightstand, making a mental note to plug it in when she got up from her comfy spot. Now she was sure that it was not her AirPods filling her ears with white noise.
She lay back in bed lulled into a sleepy haze when tan tan tan tan tan tan. The sound reached Fae again beckoning her out of sleepiness with its loud ticking. Ticking?! Wait! Is that the clock?
Fae suddenly realised shocked by how loud it was. Was the clock always that loud or did she just notice it because of the stillness of the morning? Of course, she always heard the occasional loud thang that announced the start of a new hour but she had never heard the tick-tock of the clock as the seconds ticked away into minutes and the minutes tocked away into hours. Soon even the loud tick-tock didn't prevent sleep from claiming her in its hazy abyss.
She woke up later to the loud shrill of her alarm alerting her that it was time to get up. She listened to the annoying shrill of her alarm for a while before dragging herself out of the warmth of her covers. She walked over to her table, put off her alarm, and unplugged her phone. Leaving it on the table she walked back to bed and lay in the warmth again. “Just one minute,” she murmured.
As she lay still in bed, the morning noises filtered to her. The loud crone of the iman's morning prayers strained over croaky speakers. The creak creak of beds as their tired visitors vacated them, the slip slap of shuffling feet, the click-clack of a key being turned in the lock, the soft bang of an opened door. The ringing of the bell, as the father wakes his family for morning devotion. The offkey singing of the neighbours as they begin their morning commune with God. The sharp incessant banging of the spoons against pots, as her neighbour's kids tried to make music with cooking equipment. The shri shri of water as it gushed out of the open tap and filled the bucket waiting beneath. The sha sha of a broom striking the concrete floor. The good morning oo echoed in the morning light as neighbours greeted each other. The loud bang of the car door, the soft hum of the engine as the car is started. The raised voices as her neighbours started the first fight of the day, about God knows what. The sounds that ushered in a new day. Still, she cosied into her blanket and tried to fall asleep.
She might have succeeded if not for the smells waffling into her nostrils, waking the sleeping dog of hunger that she laid to rest yesternight. That pepper egg would go so well with yam. The fried plantain will be a good accompaniment to jollof rice or spaghetti. The sweet potato would go so well with some scrambled eggs. As the scent of deliciously cooked meals waffled out of their kitchens and into her room, she was given another reason to hate her neighbours, they were such good cooks. Well, at least their food smelt nice. There was no accounting for taste. Yet, she remained in the sweet comfort of her bed, glad she had nowhere to rush to.
She tried to listen for the tan tan tan of the clock but it was drowned out by the noises around. Everything was back to noisy normal. She wondered what other sounds she missed as she went about her noisy day but she would hear clearly in the stillness.
© 2023 All Rights Reserved.