Electric

Humming. Buzzing. Droning on and on.

That’s the sound that surrounds me constantly.

The sound of lights, appliances, computers, everything.

People are talking. The lights keep humming and buzzing.

There’s music playing. The refrigerator keeps droning.

The teacher is lecturing us. The projector is whirring.

Sometimes, this orchestra of noise gets to be too much. To escape, I turn everything off and sit, listening to a record. It plays songs about love, hate, family, strangers, anything I want.

Billy Joel is singing about masks and faces. Someone comes in and turns on the light. The humming and buzzing are back.

Don’t be afraid to try again, everything goes south every now and then-

I cover my ears. I want to escape the humming and buzzing. I want it gone.

And yet, I don’t think I could handle the silence that comes with that. What would life be like without electricity’s music? What would I hear instead? Without the din of the projector, what would class be like?

For now, I sit in the dark and flip the record. I’m not quite ready to go back to the harmony-less songs just yet.

Come, as you are, as you were, as I want you to be-

Kurt Cobain fills the room, singing that song. The needle makes a faint scratching noise against the record.

Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don’t be late-

Slowly, I become less and less aware of the needle. The song has my focus, the sound of Nirvana.

And I swear that I don’t have a gun, no I don’t have a gun-

The record is purple. A special edition from their live New York show. My parents got it for me for Christmas one year.

Someone turns on the light. The humming and buzzing are back. But now, I can hear it without wanting to tear off my ears. I let the record finish.

I descend into the house, the din of senseless electrical sounds filling my senses once more.

How do people live without hearing this cacophonous orchestra, without hearing the incessant humming and droning of electrical music? How do people not realize what they’re missing? That everything has a sound, everything has a soul that sings praises? I can’t go anywhere without hearing the buzzing of lights, the humming of a fridge, the drone of the projector. How does one cope? How do they entertain themselves?

I suppose you can’t miss what you never knew. When I heard people lived without this orchestral piece, I was dumbfounded. How can you not hear it? How can you not hear the buzzing, the humming, the whirring, everything? It’s so loud and apparent, how do you not notice it?

Sometimes a noise will cause me pain. I hate the ear test doctors do. It has painful sounds. The electricity is not painful. It’s simply there.

Sometimes, I imagine that the appliances are singing, but only some people hear them. Those special people live their lives knowing what the appliances and electrical currents say, what they hear, what they see.

Whispers of loving moments, of hatred and fear. Anything you can imagine, the lights have seen. The stove has heard. And they now sing about it to each other and those that understand.

Appliances cannot talk, but maybe, just maybe, I am privy to their conversations. Maybe I can hear what they say.

The lights buzz on and on. And maybe, it’s my song.