1000 WORDS, A Story of Life

Long ago, there was a place. This place was not found on any map, it can't be located in any globe, there were no written records of it, there were no rumors about it; this place just existed, outside of human knowledge. The people who resided in this place lived a very strange life. They didn't kill each other for fun or eat their relatives for dinner; no, they were strange because they didn't talk. They didn't talk; they just listened, and listened all day, every day. The people didn't contest it, they didn't rebel against it, and they didn't even try to change it because it's just the way things were. The people there were contented. They didn't talk not because they lack any communication skills or that they were all deaf, they didn't talk because they had a quota, a limited amount of words that can be spoken. The people were only allowed to say 1000 words. From the moment they say their first word to the moment they lay on their deathbed, only 1000 words.

In this place lived a man, a man who was once a boy, a curious little boy, who found that the world is much bigger than what he can see beyond the things he can reach with his hand. This boy learned to talk at age of 4, at four he uttered his first word and it was mama. Mama because the first thing he saw when he came to this world was her face; because it was mama who fed him , gave him milk when he was hungry, she was the one who gave him bath, who kissed his wounds to make them feel better, who made all the tears stop and go away, and it was mama whose embrace felt warm and nice, enabling him to sleep soundly at night. The second word he said was dada, because it dada who worked hard to put food on their table it was dada who played with him, who made him laugh, it was dada who helped mama clean the table after dinner and it was dada who tucked him in every night and kissed his forehead mouthing goodnight, sleep tight.

This boy grew to be an innocent little lad and he was innocent to the very essence of the word. He lacked any experience with the world around him. He was blind and naive to the bad things, the horrors that lurk at every shadow, every crevice in the world. He was innocent but he was open, open to the wonders the world can offer, open to the limitless beauty there is all around. He was open to the goodness in everything, goodness that can only be seen by someone as innocent as him. Because he was so innocent to the hardships in life, he didn't know to savor and save his words and because of this he was already half-way through this quota. He talked, he blabbed, not because he was talkative or linked to break culture, he talked because it made his parents smile. To parents who knew that they will only hear their child talk for a short while, his words were a light at the end of the tunnel, they may not be able to reciprocate the words but the boy knew that they were happy and proud of him.

Of course as time passed, the boy knew to stop talking, to nod or shake his head, to smile in greeting and frown when he wanted something, he glowered when he was angry and cried when he was sad. Once puberty came he was a different person, he become moody, became more active; he became another person. For the first time in his life, he was free of the restraints of childhood and parental control; he became liberated . The day came when became a man and reached 18 years old with only 450 words left. Even though his boy was doomed of finishing his quota he still didn't worry, because he believed that he's using them for something special, for someone special. Her name was Morgan and she was a lively girl, her hair was as yellow as gold, her smile radiant as the sun, her skin as smooth as porcelain and her eyes as blue as the deepest ocean.

For her, he used words like "Hello" and "What's your name?" but those words didn't cut it. "Will you go out with me?" and "Will you be my girlfriend?" just wasn't enough. "Will you marry me?" and "I Do" just placed the cherry on top. They were married when the boy was 25 years old, 7 years after they met, 15 years of marriage and love produced 3 children, but it also produced something that the man didn't get when he was just a boy, wisdom. Knowledge from the experience he gained in life, the good and the bad things the world and learned how to deal with them. At 25 years, both of them started to wither and grow old. They were there to see their eldest get married, they were there to hear the cries of their first grandson and they were able to feel the way a real family should actually feel.

But not all moments were happy ones. The day they got married the man was down to 250 words, while Morgan was far still. Because of this, Morgan became the talkative one in their family. She wasn't afraid to voice out her comments when they got lost during a trip in their honeymoon. She let her words fly when the doctor won't let her be with their daughter when she was in labor. She spoke the sweetest words when they said their vows during their 2nd wedding, 50 years after the first. And shed babbled like a baby when a the man got hurt climbing a cliff just to pick a wildflower to give to her.

The man was 83 years old when he only had 150 words left, Morgan, however was left with none. She used up all of hers when she was diagnosed with cancer. The man cried and held her as she yelled at the doctor to do something , as she asked every practitioner in the city for help, and the man held her when she used up her last words to tell their kids and grandkids that she loves them all.

Two years after finding out about her condition, Morgan was bedridden. Her once active and healthy body is now old, withering and dying. The man, sitting beside his wife on her deathbed, was down to his last 100 words. He was thinking of all the things he could have done to stop his wife from using up all her words, he could have helped her save her last words to say goodbye. He was brought out of his stupor when he felt a hand on his. He looked down and saw his wife, her hair turned white y age, her smile still as radiant as ever, her skin remained pure throughout the years, and her eyes still the deepest ocean he thought they were.

He held up her hand and said "My dearest wife, Morgan"... but what he was about to say was stopped short when his wife closed her eyes, a smile on her face while she took a deep breath then became still.

The man closed his eyes and remembered all the adventure they shared, all the laughs and smiles and love. He took and deep breath opened his eyes and smile. His sight blurry from unshed tears, he held his deceased wife's hand and continued to say "I LOVE YOU" 30 times. With his heart clenched in agony, his tears now falling freely and his soul open craving for the rebirth that he would have soon; the rebirth of a new story in his life. He bent down and kissed her forehead and using his last 6 words he whispered, as light as air, "Wait for me, I'm coming home". And the man, who was once a boy, laid down beside his wife and dreamed of a new life, a beginning, a new story.

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