Page 27 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
him and did not notice for six seconds, which was
long enough to be memorable.
In Rome, a line cook carried a frozen bag of pre-
made carbonara to the dining room and set it on a
white tablecloth in front of a man in a blazer. He
said the menu lied. The man in the blazer laughed
and then did not. He left without paying and then
came back and paid double. The cook went back to
the kitchen and made eggs and guanciale in a pan
and sent the plate out with no garnish.
By midafternoon the city started to sound
different. Words were shorter. The space between
them was not hostile, only careful. People were
trying to place each sentence where it would do the
least damage and the most good. It was clumsy. It
was also contagious.
A bus driver braked hard at a crosswalk and
opened the doors and told the passengers he was
tired and needed five minutes to look at the river.
He stepped outside. No one yelled. A woman took
the wheel of his silence and faced forward and
waited. When he came back, she smiled at him like
a co-worker.
Not all choices were noble. A man in Prague
announced during a staff meeting that he had
never loved his wife. He packed his desk before the
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