The Sound 

G.H. Goins 

Thomas yawned, exhaling dramatically onto the back of his hand. He rubbed his eyes with the same hand, careful to keep control of the steering wheel. His fingers brushed the dangling wires of his headphones. 

Thomas concentrated on the music, as the stereo made the noise seemingly bounce around the inside of his skull. To the left, to the right, to the left, and back again. The volume was loud, but still quiet enough for him to hear the sounds of the movie that was playing for his family. Thomas squinted against the bright lights of a truck, blinding him momentarily, as he struggled to focus on the white line of the road. The car passed with a hiss. He flipped his high beam lights back on. 

The song he was listening to was building to a crescendo, just as the music in the movie suddenly grew loud and almost drowned out the music entering directly into his ears. Thomas reached down, keeping a careful eye on the road, and clicked a button on the side of his phone a couple times. The music in his earbuds grew louder. Thomas was hoping to drown out the music from the movie, but the actions he took had a different effect; the two songs clashed and created a noise that interrupted his concentration on driving. 

It was a terrible sound.

The two songs disagreed, not only on the surface level, but the electric guitar and fast drum line of the song on Thomas’s phone could never compliment the emotional, moving piece being played by strings from the score in the movie being played. 

Thomas swerved suddenly. “Sorry,” he told the occupants of the car.  

The baby started to cry. Thomas felt the comforting hand of his wife on his shoulder. The music from the movie died down and he came to realize just how loud the music in his earbuds actually was. He turned the volume down a few notches and caught the back end of a question asked by his wife.

“Hmm?” Thomas inquired.

She gently pulled the earbud from his right ear.  

Instantly, Thomas became mildly annoyed. Not with his wife, but with the music from the movie. It was clashing with his song again. His left ear still heard the music from his phone while his right ear heard the music from the movie. It was like having one foot submerged in freezing cold water while the other was immersed in steaming, hot water. It just felt wrong.

“I said, ‘would you like for me to take a turn driving?’” 

Thomas heard the question but it didn’t register right away. The sounds in his head distracted him. “Uh…” 

The sound. 

It was loud and awful and distracting. It interrupted his thought processing. His mind raced frantically, but in all the wrong directions. It was an explosion of unpleasant noise. 

To Thomas’ relief, his song ended and there was a brief moment of silence from the music in his earbuds. The movie was at a spot when there was no dialogue and only music. It was beautiful. The strings all ran together to make a stream of flowing sound, as they harmonized together and lifted each other up and brought each other down, but never in such a way that was not completely graceful. Soft trumpets blared, bringing steady compliments to the rolling theme. The percussion only added to the emotion instead of simply hijacking the song. The piano carried the melody on its back. The song rose and fell, ebbed and flowed. The streams of multiple instruments joined together to make a river of beautiful Sound.

Thomas was aware that a new song had started on his phone, but he wasn’t listening. He felt the eyes of his wife and was reminded that he had yet to do something. 

He tried to remember. His wife. One earbud. The question. What was it? Oh, yeah. Did he need a break?

“No, no. I think I’m good. I can keep going. Thanks though.”

“Okay...” She said. “Are you okay? You seem tired.”

Thomas rubbed his eyes again. “Yeah, I’m fine. I am tired, but that’s okay. I think we’ve got less than an hour to go anyway.”

 “Alright,” she said, sounding hesitant. She brought her knees to her chest and leaned her head against the window, closing her eyes. 

The song in his left ear was at the chorus and no music came from the movie, as the characters conversed together. He could hear the giggles of his children as they enjoyed the movie. The night outside was dark and it started to rain. Thomas could hear each drop as they fell on the vehicle and spattered on the windshield. 

More noise.

Thomas replaced the earbud and the stereo sound was complete again. It was during his favorite song on the album. It was one of the happier songs. 

Half way through the song, through the fast drumming and intense guitars and loud, passionate singing, Thomas was able to hear the movie’s music again. 

He chuckled to himself.

For a moment, the two songs stopped clashing and began melding. The movie’s score wove in and out of the song’s melody. It was actually a nice sound. The beat was a little off, but Thomas was okay with that. It became hard to tell the two sounds apart. He lost himself in the noise. 

It lasted for about fifteen seconds and the sounds parted ways. His song ended and the movie score continued it’s beautiful river of Sound.

The next song began to play in his earbuds. It was bold, loud. Offensive. It clashed with the flow of the movie’s musical river, and the terrible sound returned. Thomas took his hand off the wheel and turned the volume of his phone’s music up some.

The Sound was immediately drowned out to Thomas, though it kept playing.