“I’m just a tree falling in the woods,” the face thought. He was a lonesome face, residing on the white board in a classroom. The face was drawn there by his creator, a pudgy little boy who couldn’t hear him, none of the students could hear him.
“Oh, hi hello there,” the face used to say to the students, “I enjoy viewing your shoes,” but the face stopped trying when none of them would respond.
The face felt like an outcast without having anyone to talk to. That was until one day, the face spied, on the other side of the classroom, another white board illustration.
This other drawing had pointy ears, whiskers, and two curved lines joined at a triangle to make a mouth and nose.
“Hi, I’m a cat. Meow,” the cat said to the face.
“Hi!” said the face jubilantly. “It’s very nice to meet you, although I must ask, how’d you know you were a cat? You couldn’t have possibly seen for yourself with no mirror in the room.”
“Do I really look like a cat?” the cat asked. “What an amazing coincidence that is I always feel like saying meow so I assumed that I was a cat.”
“That’s amazing. If you don’t mind, would you describe what I look like, I’ve never seen myself before.” The face was ecstatic to finally be able to learn what he looked like. Maybe he was a king or an astronaut! The cat however, didn’t want to be the one to break to her new friend that he was merely two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth, a vague likeness to a face. Instead she described how amazing he looked in his knight garb, riding a space unicorn.
The face was overjoyed to finally have someone to talk to and the cat was happy just to be a cat with a new friend. The face and the cat’s friendship grew over time and they would talk for weeks without stopping. Their friendship may have started because there wasn’t anyone else to talk to, but over time they realized that they genuinely cared about each other. The cat and face loved to watch all the kids come in and out of the classroom and when all the kids had left the two would talk about everything that happened that day.
One day during one of the cat and face’s week long discussions on shoe colors the face said to the cat:
“I used to be lonely but now I’m happy because of you.” The face and the cat had gotten used to telling each other how they were feeling since they didn’t exactly have visual cues like smiling when they were happy.
“I’m happy too.” The cat said and if she could have smiled she would have.
One day while all the students were working, the teacher came up to cat with a blue bottle with a white nozzle for spraying.
“What is it?” The cat asked the face.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The teacher then sprayed the entire white board with a green liquid, including the cat. The cat started screaming in pain.
“It hurts!” It was the first time the cat had ever felt pain.
The teacher got out a rag.
“Calm down,” the face said. “It’s going to be okay.”
The teacher lifted the rag to the top of the white board.
“I’m scared,” the cat whimpered.
The teacher wiped the marker writing right off the board, going from left to right in long zig zagged strokes.
“I’m scared too. I’m scared to lose you,” the face said.
“I’m scared to lose you,” the cat said.
“I…” but the cat was wiped off the board. Gone. Gone forever.
The face screamed.
The face screamed because he was sad.
The face screamed because he was mad.
The face screamed because if the cat was here she would have heard him scream.
The face screamed, but he didn’t make a sound.