For a long time, Bububunny had had a feeling that something was not adding up. It was as if something was missing, but at the same time there all along. It was a feeling similar to the one of wanting to say something, but keeping quiet instead. Or keeping quiet, and letting the silence be telling.
Sometimes, the uttered sentence is left hanging in the air, unfinished. Or, the sentence is finished, but you can no longer remember its beginning. And sometimes you feel that a pause in a conversation carries a special meaning.
Bububunny had this odd feeling while she was chatting online, and especially while she was making regular calls. Pauses in conversations, meanings in silence. As if sometimes looking into one’s eye and being quiet carried a meaning, although neither of the conversation partners said it.
Bububunny decided to find out the reason for that, because she was interested in finding out the truth, just like every other true scientist. She set up a phone call over the Internet, but the receiving end of that call was nowhere and nobody. It is a strange type of phone call—to reach nobody, to call no one.
Have you ever noticed that whenever you accidentally dial a wrong number, it is never busy? On the other hand, if the line was busy, how would you know you dialed a wrong number? You can check. But what about those calls where you dial a number and nothing happens? You think that there must be an error somewhere, a number left undialed, or some fault in the phone you are using.
When someone takes the call, then we expect a “Hello!” If this “Hello!” doesn’t come, then we at least hear some sort of clatter or rattling or tinging, or at least some rustling or scrabbling or twanging. But what do we hear when we call nowhere and expect nothing? This is what Bububunny set out to investigate.
First: meaningless silence.
“Hello! It’s Bububunny!”
Silence.
“I know you’re there.”
Silence, then clatter, then silence again. A sort of awkward silence.
“And you have always been there, if I’m not mistaken.”
A sort of warm and recognizing silence. The sort of silence that follows when you tell someone they are great, and you are so happy to see them, and then they fall silent out of gratitude, feeling short of words. This type of silence.
“I am…well, I guess there is no need to say, you know who I am,” Bububunny said, smiling. Indeed, her conversation partner was someone who has been there since the beginning of time, and by that Bububunny really meant the beginning of time, the moment when the Universe came into being. Maybe even before that. If you want to imagine this feeling, then go near some old tree and think about the fact that this tree has stood there for a long-long time, way longer than your existence. Longer than the existence of your parents and grandparents, even longer than your great-grandparents. Once upon a time, it was only a tiny little sprout, but now—a big tree!
“I’m very glad to finally have the chance to communicate with you,” Bububunny added. Then, a very serene silence was heard, the kind when you have just put a candy in your mouth, and you no longer rustle with candy wrappers, but just keep quiet and sense the sweetness spreading in your mouth. This feeling is exceptionally good, very fofefa.
“Actually, I wanted to discuss a few things with you…” Bububunny continued.
The creature that Bububunny had discovered—and the whole world had not discovered—was…since he has no name, let’s just call him Aquabubu. Aquabubu is the only creature in the whole universe, whose existence affects absolutely nothing. Whatever happens in the universe, nothing changes for Aquabubu. He is entirely and absolutely independent from everything. Since the beginning of time.
We call him Aquabubu because he has sat or stood at the bottom of the ocean right from the formation of Earth and the oceans. He originates from alien, Other Waters. His spot is right next to the place where the submarine communications cable was laid, the one that carries a great deal of the world’s Internet traffic. Every time a group of scientists come to study the area, they pass over his spot. Sometimes, it is because they forget to look at that specific place, sometimes they look, but not closely enough, and sometimes they just miss him.
Even if you point a finger at him, the description of him remains nondescript, comments irrelevant, and the story revolves around him, but not about him. However hard we try, nobody can speak directly about Aquabubu. We can, however, talk around him, hinting at him. People use expressions like “you know” or “well, this” or “you know, who” and then “what was I saying” and then they snap their fingers in loss of words.
One can only talk to Aquabubu in the language that doesn’t exist, or doesn’t exist in words, so to speak. Agent Gibbs from the television show NCIS is a good example of a person who can speak to Aquabubu. Take any random episode, and see how good he is at using the language and its nuances. When someone asks a question that cannot be answered in ordinary language, or it would take too long to explain, or it is even pointless to explain, then he falls silent, looks, head a bit askew, with a long gaze, and the silence is so telling that everyone immediately understands the answer in the silence.
There are lot of those who know this language, but still more those who don’t. Turn on your television or radio to get confirmation for that, see and hear how much is being spoken, spoken aimlessly, about nothing. And significant, telling silence, how little we have of that! Talk shows on the radio usually have music playing as background noise in order to cover up those rare moments of silence that could carry any meaning.
“…so, with this, I conclude. Thank you for the great advice, take care!” Bububunny said, and ended the call. Indeed, the best calls are those in which listening takes place, because we cannot hear anything new while talking—it can only happen while listening.
Bububunny put her iPhoneb@ on the table and got ready to go to sleep. Kittyb@ was already asleep, occasionally purring through her slumber. It was a sort of relaxing and somnolent silence, which is always great for when you feel drowsy and Dudub@ has come to send you to sleep.
