A/N: Looks like I need some form of clarification here. I'm not sure about other countries, but where I'm from and at my stage in education, we're supposed to be writing essays ranging from different text types, be it a narrative (aka short story), exposition reviews and so on. This was written sometime this year when we were still doing narratives so yar, it's a short story. Sorry for the misconception here and I've also replaced the first draft with the final one, though there aren't quite many changes to it.

The hard rain beat relentlessly against the thick glass windows that kept the winter cold out. Winter was ending. Soon spring would come and the thick snow that had built up over time would melt… Ester had thought that surely, the thick, towering wall of ice that separated her parents and herself would begin to melt now that this had happened. She was wrong.

She sat in a corner in her small and musty room, her head bowed and her arms clasped tightly over it, seemingly oblivious to the rain outside. She enclosed herself in her own mind, a void, a vacuum, unable to or not wanting to hear any sounds from the outside world. The sounds of the rain beating against the window, the sounds of her parents fighting outside… nothing could penetrate the resilient barrier she drew around herself.

She looked pleadingly, even longingly at the full moon in the sky, tears streaming down her cheeks. It was so quiet, so serene, so pure and yet at the same time, so distant and far away. Like her departed sister, Erin.

Erin…She had led an unfortunate life. Born with a mental disability, and constantly being ridiculed by insensitive passers-by, especially her father. Her father the drunkard. Her father the gambler. Her father the good-for-nothing tyrant that had ruined their peaceful and quiet lives!

Ester felt like she was in an old movie, where everything was black and white, where sound was not available due to the limitations of technology, where everything was up to your own interpretation until the captions were flashed on the large, black and empty screens.

A monotonous clicking sound could be faintly heard as the reel began to rewind at a steady speed, bringing Ester back to the scenes of the past.

She remembered the night when Erin was born. A cold winter night, much like what it was now. Her mother had been in labour for over twelve hours by then and her ear piercing screams resonated in Ester’s ears, striking fear into her heart that she might lose both her mother and unborn sister that night. Her father, of course, was nowhere to be found.

She remembered entering the dark and dim birthing chamber after her sister was delivered. It was a small room with a single wooden-framed bed with a tattered mattress on top. The wooden walls had gaps and holes in them that allowed quiet wisps of air to creep into the room. In the middle stood a solitary candle, which illuminated a weak light, futile against the darkness that seemed to engulf it.

She squinted as her eyes swept across the room. She saw her mother lying on the bed, perspiration trickling down the tendrils of her raven black hair as she smiled wanly at Ester. The midwife stood beside her, a small bundle in her arms. The baby was not crying. Nobody needed to say anything. Something was horribly wrong.

Silence…

The silence was deafening, nerve wrecking, and even annoying as Ester paced up and down the corridor, outside the room. She had returned outside and tried to contact her father, but the insistent ringing of the phone was not heard as he lay drunk and asleep at home. For what seemed like an eternity, the midwife finally emerged from the room.

Ester stopped pacing, immediately turning towards her.

“How are they?” she asked, a glimmer of concern and hope could be clearly seen in her teary eyes.

The mid wife sighed while undoing the knot of her bloodied apron.

“Your mother’s fine,” she said, pausing a while before turning to look Ester in the eye, “but your sister… I managed to finally get her breathing but I fear that the lack of oxygen may have already done its damage.”

Ester stood dumbfounded for a while, letting the words sink in. The midwife gave Ester a pat on the shoulder and turned to pack her equipment.

Words began to flash at the back of her mind. A caption of this black and white movie. This was where it begun.

The first time Ester saw her baby sister, whom her mother had named Erin, would be a memory that would stay forever etched deeply into her memories. As Ester held her in her arms, rocking her gently, she sang a soothing lullaby. She remembered Erin’s crystal blue eyes staring back inquisitively at her. She would never learn how to speak, but her crystalline eyes spoke volumes. This developed into what seemed like a mutual understanding between them that did not require the use of pretentious words.

Her father had never wanted to acknowledge the existence of Ester’s newly born little sister. He loathed her existence, detested it and would probably, in his drunkard demeanour, have inflicted a mortal blow to her had Ester not intervened. She remembered glaring into his wild eyes, her own blazing with resolve as she stood determinedly between her raving father and her quiet sister. Unlike others, Ester found quiet submission to her father almost an impossibility.

It was not long before the harsh waves of reality came crashing onto Ester once again. As doctors had feared, Erin had developed a brain tumour. They had not enough money for medication and Ester had no one to turn to. Her mother who had previously promised Ester that they both would take some manner of responsibility in bringing Erin up had sunken into a state of depression and guilt, blaming herself for Erin’s state. Her father was obviously of no help either with his obsessive gambling and drinking, wasting away both his life and their money - the same bit of money that could have saved Erin’s life.

Ester watched helplessly as the movie began to fast forward, crying out in vain as the waves of reality drowned her desperate pleas, watching in silence as her sister slipped slowly away from her, and into the eternal peace.

Erin had passed on, yet the movie continued to be filmed, recording on and on tirelessly without sound. Ester did not want there to be sound. She refused to listen to the quarrels of her parents outside as her father demanded for more money for his own personal enjoyment, while her mother wanting to give Erin a decent funeral.

The rain outside had stopped, but not without washing off some of the snow from the rooftops and windowpanes. The quietness and tranquillity of the night seemed to calm her as she continued to gaze at the seemingly bluish moon. It was as if Erin were looking at her from above, sending her, again without the use of words, her love and a peacefulness which seemed to envelope her entire being.

Perhaps one day, like the rain which had ended and washed away the snow, the pain and the anger would be washed out of her life. Perhaps one day she could live peacefully and happily in a family full of love. Perhaps one day the barrier which she drew around herself would be broken down, breaking the enduring silence that had governed her life… and perhaps on that day, new life would be breathed into the silence of this mono-coloured movie.